Post Office Scandal: The Full Story (So Far) 

He was very smart in the first place not signing off on the wrong balance. Good on him. He believed in himself. That's what every single one of them should have done. But it's hard in the face of a machine. Both the computer and the lying b's on the phoneline.

Did it pay off?

They were told they were the only one, so that put doubt in their mids. Shame on them.

The general persistent Quiet Power of The Public. It cannot be stopped once it starts to roll. Never fear your government. Your government must fear you.

Yes. Vennels - dishonest and self aggrandised. Alan Bates - thoroughly decent person.

Yes Blair shouldn't be allowed to walk away from this unscathed. If not for him and Fujitsu this would never have happened.

he got away with starting a war in the middle east based on false information invented to justify a war .. .. so I'm guessing this is water off a ducks back. A slight breeze on a fair day. These people never face justice.

And there are no flawless systems. They simply don't exist. All systems have vulnerabilities. And that's why you need a plan to manage threats and losses and design controls that mitigate vulnerabilities. And you need to do this continuously. It's a never ending activity.

WE WANT TO SEE JUSTICE BEING DONE ..... all we get is blah blah blah and laywers getting rich ... blah blah blah ...

​@senchaholic Just to add that there should also be inbuilt systems to detect "unexpected" traffic. The main system should have rung alarms; the individual sub-postoffices should have rung alarms when they detected rogue incoming messages. To me it seems the backdoor was a _designed_ and intended feature.

They certainly knew at the beginning. Horizon was initially commissioned from Fujitsu to manage the benefits systems, but all the bugs meant that it turned out to be too unreliable for this. This was a big thing in government at the time, they all knew. But rather than abandon it and waste the investment, and fall behind with his 'modernising' pledges, Tony Blair asked Fujitsu to revamp the system for the Post Office. He then pretty much forced it onto the Post Office, who were trying to resist this. As time went on the PO and Fujitsu management hoped that their IT departments were managing the glitches, and got on with telling the public that the system was working ...

I agree. Government ministers definitely knew.

@@gaz8891 it was a failed nhs programe they rejected it .

Well of course they did!. They OWN the PO!😡

If the dwp have had bugs too why oh why did they not think " hang on a minute" is this happening with the po

The Police have interviewed I think only Two People under caution for ''Perverting the Course of Justice''

UK police doesn't investigate crimes that happened in the past. Didn't you know?

@@kurtgodel5236 the met police does not reconise tory crimes .two places best to be if you want a good criminal career.with a real good pay off and a pension.

police will never arrest a tory backed horse.

Also repeatedly lying to the courts.

There were definitely individuals that new about the issues with Horizon. Whether the inquiry will get to the bottom of it remains to be seen. As many of the participants in the inquiry seem to be afflicted with amnesia, it seems unlikely sadly.

Andy they had their eyes shut so they didnt hear a thing...lol...

Yes the woman asking the question - "What I want to know is where that money went? That is the crux of this. The question left unanswered. Yes Fujitsu!!!

andyiswonderful There are always lessons learned , the lesson is , let's not get caught next time, the amnesia that appears to have affected all those who were directly responsible is very convenient , more than likely as a recommendation from the lawyers , the whole bunch involved in this affair should , if there was any real justice in this land , be behind bars , somehow I can't see that ever happening.

I personally, cannot bare to hear " lessons should be learned" I'm sick to my high teeth of this statement. It's said whenever a company, public sector etc make immense mistakes deluberate or not, yet they never learn it happens again and again.

That’s only for women

@@mazz2001 He says as women post masters were also affected by this scandal.

That was Alan Bates argument!

There was no actual evidence. Only the word of workers and directors of the Post Office justifying their claims. Basically they were believed by the legal system, because they were the 'Post Office's.

None

Her CBE was revoked.

Gives a whole new meaning to going postal.

The system is undeniably broken with corruption! These investigations are a joke and an insult, just a way to shut people up again! There is NO justice! We need a reform of the government. Everyone should be audited on a regular basis and the audits should be in public record. If the figures don't add up then people should be held accountable, after all isn't this what they themselves said to these poor people. The government truly believes we are all idiots! Reform and a good clean out like in any other business.

hawkhoskins4250 ,It means absolutely nothing at all , when the government or civil service are being held to account they have an enquiry which always takes at least two years if not more and practically in almost every case produces nothing . If they can pull it off they will do the same with this scenario,

Still not settled and still going on to this day, even after EVERYONE knows that this particular Post Office computer system is corrupt, can't be trusted and can be accessed by backdoors run by non-Post Office IT staff. Even today it's standard practice for Post Office to pursue the Postmasters for any money stolen during a robbery at their Post Office. The 'problem' for all involved in the prosecution of innocent people in this case is that it involves so many UK politicians from all parties, so many ex-Prime Ministers, the judiciary, the Director of Public Prosecutions, so many household names here in the UK, exposes the UK government to the risk of HUGE civil cases and holds the UK Honours system up to ridicule for 'rewarding' corrupt and criminal individuals who knowingly persecuted and prosecuted people they knew to be innocent. The crimes committed here can only have one outcome - serious jail time for those involved - and with so many being of that particular ilk, that is why the current and next UK governments will do their usual "sit back and bluster and hope that it all goes away with the wind". I believe the phrase is "we investigated ourselves and found we did nothing wrong". Among the huge list of questions that need answers are at least two big questions: 1) Where is all of the money that was deemed to have been stolen and then paid back by some Postmasters and did any Post Office management staff benefit from it? 2) While dozens of Fujitsu IT staff were involved in backdoor entry to the alleged 'secure' accounts of particular Post Offices, were they involved in the 'thefts' and did they cover their trails within the software?

I found myself using some colourful language. It was shocking.

tory are seeing how they can middle out of this before being kicked out of office.

At least the law in England and Wales allows for private prosecutions. I think that's the only way to see the responsible in the dock

​@@smallGatsby I fear you are quite correct , the government and civil service aided by the Lawyers will connive to deny justice in this case , I do not believe that one of the persons responsible for this disgraceful episode will face prosecution , if by the remotest chance someone will it will be in the form of sacrificial lambs ,ie people who , in the eyes of our so called authorities do not count.

I think there will be - the victims AND the public will DEMAND it

It appears to have done, most recently. The Post Office boss was exonerated!! Can't be justice!

where is Aotearoa? Last time i checked i live in NZ.

@@jal98uc Land of the Long White Cloud = Aotearoa - which is New Zealand, even in the UK we know where and what Aotearoa is - and we love the Maori. Greetings to all Kiwis in your beautiful land.

I couldn’t agree more.

The legal system is and always has been a bastion for the ruling elites. It is "obscenely expensive" for a reason, to deny the average wage earner or small trader an avenue for redress. How often do we see issues that are essentially social in nature end up in court? The judiciary identifies with the "top end of town" not the "average" people in suburbia, and it loathes prosecuting one of its "own". That is why terms such as misplaced are used instead of theft, oversight instead of fraud and so on, a totally different language

Exactly, people are sick of hearing this, especially as it keeps happening. Anything will be said just to pacify the public, hood wink us in to believing some one is doing something about it. WHEN THEY ARE NOT.

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Bravo, well said, that's exactly what we need to do! These "public/private partnerships" have been a windfall for the already rich shareholders and when something goes wrong, it's the taxpayers that are expected to bail them out, like our 10 years of Austerity, we suffered whilst they gave themselves a 7-figure raise. No more. We're done. The only way we can stop them now is everybody stop paying ALL taxes. They won't get very far without our hard-earned money.

the tory boys doing the tax for the post office claimed tax back on compo claimed for the post office knowing the money was form criminality they had created .

How right you are.

My immediate thought when this debacle came to my attention was that the new program had not been properly tested. Lots of honest employees do not become dishonest overnight. The PO and FUJITSU are the real criminals.

Exactly. All 700 that were convicted, especially the 236 that went to prison. So many have lost pretty much everything, including 10+ years of their lives.

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There was and still is a union for subpostmasters which is funded by the post office which did nothing over the scandal apart from advise people facing conviction to plead guilty for suspended sentences rather than prison. There should be an independent union established now for postmasters

set up wost than the phone in system in advance to take your money think your safe then in 11 hour simply forget you exist and look the other way.

​@@jemorroidskp💯👍

Not only the sub postmasters. Everyone who values truth, honesty & justice. Alan Bates is a modern Robin Hood

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Which must stop!

her god is Belphegor with out a doubt .

​@@andydudley1775Belphegor! My goodness! 😂😂

Should have stopped by now!

shhh they don't want you to talk about that Makes the government look corrupt

Yeah! 🙁🙁

Please clarify 🤔

underrated comment.

Yep. That’s correct! It’s an absolutely ridiculous feature of our justice system. If you take someone to court, and they offer you £200,000 to settle out of court, if you turn this offer down and win £150,000 in court they can say that you have wasted their time and money as you won less through the court system. This allows them to get you to pay for their lawyers fees, as this is a charge they wouldn’t have had to pay if you had taken the original £200,000!!! I think this also happens in other countries too! Insane, right? 🤦🏽‍♀️

You're asking for a diplomatic nightmare that will take years to do and impact many other businesses that will likely cut ties with the UK over that.

It’s likely Fujitsu uk are partially at fault, I can’t imagine this was instructed from Japan. But hopefully that will be clarified.

​@@TheOmegaRiddlerthat is a risk Fujitsu assumes by engaging in international trade. They can't accept international funds without international accountability.

​@TheOmegaRiddler Yes: but UK plc can't allow itself to be ripped off like this!!!

Stop SHOUTING, and don't waste exclamation marks!

Has to be!!

Because they want to pay out as least as possible.. instead of just doing the right thing and paying out what the individual's are owed.

If its money for Ukraine Post Office - billions $$$ overnight!!!

If you under pay your taxes in Canada your interest is charged starting at APRIL 31st when it should have been paid. Therefore the Post Office had the Sub Postmasters funds since possibly 1999 the they have to calculate interest the over payment of funds due to the Fujitsu error which would be approximately 25 years compounded monthly at the very least. PLUS Compensation for hardship in loosing their livelihood, ending up in Jail or committing suicide.

​@@fredsmith1970💯💯

​@@rosemarymonty5399💯

greetings from istanbul, russian emigrant here. just wait till our mad grandpa attacks uk or some other country in europe. sure thing helping the dying people will be a priority and you won't mind incoming foreign billions to help you guys out, nah?