Imagine you run a small shop for a big reputable company. One day, the company tells you cash is missing from the till and you have to pay it back. The problem is, you haven't stolen the cash and have no idea what happened. You tell them you're innocent but they ignore you. The missing cash claims keeps on happening and goes up to tens of thousands of GBP. Eventually you're forced to dig into your personal savings to pay back the missing cash, otherwise they will take you to court and send you to prison. After that, they terminate your contract, and you're left with nothing. No job. No money. No future.
The Background
This is the Post Office Scandal and has dominated the UK news in recent weeks.
In UK, there are over 11 thousand post offices. Most are run by small independent business owners on a franchise from the Post Office, a government owned organisation. These owners are called sub postermasters (mistresses). Often the post office may be located inside a general store and is an important part of the community particularly in rural areas.
In 1999, the Post Office installed a new accounting system called Horizon in all the post offices. Shortly after, sub postmasters found that Horizon kept on flagging up cash discrepancies ie cash was missing from the business. When the sub postmasters called the Horizon helpline, they were told no one else had reported that problem. That they must have done something wrong, and they have to make good the missing cash.
In reality, over 3500 sub postmasters had the same problem over a 15 year period but they were all told they were the only one. The Post Office accused all these people of fraud and false accounting even though they all said they were innocent.
Based on the sub postmaster's contract with the Post Office, they are responsible for any losses or missing cash. The sub postmasters had no option and had to pay back the missing cash from their savings, retirement pensions or even sell their home. Some stood their ground and refused to pay back the missing cash, the Post Office prosecuted 983 sub postmasters. Some of them were given suspended sentences or community services, and some were sent to jail, including one who was pregnant at that time. This ruined the lives of over 3500 families - prison sentences, criminal records, contract termination, loss of savings, loss of home, bankruptcy, PTSD, divorce, ill health, and even suicide.
Exactly what happened?
Incompetence
Greed
Corporate cover up
Incompetence - Horizon
The Horizon accounting system was developed by a UK computer firm called ICL in 1999. They were a subsidiary of the Japanese technology firm Fujitsu. In fact, in my last job, my old firm always came up against Fujitsu when bidding for IT outsourcing contracts. This is one of the reasons why this scandal frustrates me so much. Not only because it wrecked so many people's lives, but also because it's due to an IT outsourcing system, an industry that I used to work in.
The Horizon contract cost the Post Office, and therefore the UK government, and hence the taxpayers nearly £1 billion over its lifetime, and it is still ongoing. It was such a massive high profile contract back in 1999 and was described as the "largest non military IT system in Europe".
Unfortunately, on the technical level, Horizon just wasn't fit for purpose. Put simply, it was a shit system from the onset. The ICL software team found a lot of bugs and they were firefighting to fix things even after the system was rolled out into the post offices. In particular, they found serious issues with the cash account which generated wrong figures. It would show a sub postmaster's account to be short of cash when it wasn't. These issues were the first of the underlying causes of the sub postmaster's ill fate and eventual downfall for many of them.
Greed - ICL and Fujitsu
ICL in UK were a bit like IBM in USA. They were a strong reliable computer firm trusted by the government to deliver big IT services. In the 80s, they were acquired by Fujitsu a major IT company in Japan.
At around the same time as winning the Horizon contract, Fujitsu wanted to float ICL on the UK stock market. The listing was worth £5bn and it's fair to say that the floatation's success hinged on the Horizon contract's success. Everyone from ICL and Fujitsu, particularly the senior executives were determined that the Horizon project could not fail.
By 2000 the dot com bubble happened, and many IT companies went bust. The ICL stock floatation was canceled. Things were not looking good for the company and the success of Horizon was even more important now to keep the company alive. This meant delivering the project on time and budget. Anybody that works on large scale projects will know this never happens.
Some of the ICL technical team suggested to senior management that Horizon should be rewritten because there were too many bugs and errors. Rewriting the software would cost more money and time and ICL could not let this happen. They continued to roll out Horizon to the post offices knowing the problems existed. This is no different from a restaurant continuing to serve food to customers knowing it will poison them.
Cover up - Post Office
The Post Office always had a culture of mistrusting their sub postmasters, that the latter were stealing from the Post Office. Before the computerised Horizon system was installed, transactions were done on paper making it difficult for the Post Office to prove their case.
After Horizon, the system flagged up all these cash shortfalls, confirming the Post Office's suspicions. They were right all along, the sub postmasters were stealing. The computer said so, and the computer is always right. And thus began the endless and ruthless prosecutions
The Post Office relied on data from Horizon to prosecute the sub postmasters. Data was provided by Fujitsu, who knew there were bugs in the system but nevertheless insisted that Horizon was correct. The Post Office turned a blind eye to this as Fujitsu told them what they wanted to hear. They used evidence that would help their case, and held back information that didn't. Over the 15 year period, the Post Office prosecuted on average one sub postmaster every week.
By 2009, many sub postmasters realised something was very wrong and created a Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA). By this time, the Post Office also knew Horizon wasn't as robust as Fujitsu claimed to be. But they were too deep into the fallacy. The cover up and lies continued even when they were forced to call in independent forensic accountants in 2012.
What happened next?
In 2017 the JFSA took the Post Office to court. The Post Office continued to be very difficult but in the end agreed to an out of court settlement of £58m. That sounds like a lot of money for the 555 sub postmasters who took part in the legal action. But once you take away the legal fees, each sub postmaster pocketed about £20k. That's hardly enough to cover the cash shortfall that the Post Office hounded them for years, let alone the consequently loss they suffered. The main point was that the Post Office still did not admit to any liability.
The upside of the court case, was that it was now demonstrated Horizon was faulty. And despite the Post Office not admitting it, they were wrong to accuse the sub postmasters.
In 2021 a public statutory inquiry was set up. They are independent from the government but have legal powers to call people to give evidence. The other week, I watched as the European head of Fujitsu sat in front of the inquiry. He admitted that they, and the Post Office knew about all the bugs from day one, and the Post Office had removed them from the information used to prosecute the sub postmasters.
As of Fujitsu's last year annual report, there was no mention of their involvement in the Post Office scandal as a business risk, and they had made no financial provisions for it. This showed that they didn't think they were responsible at all. During the inquiry, Fujitsu finally apologised, and acknowledged they had a moral obligation to contribute to the sub postmasters' compensation. Note he said 'moral' and not legal here. I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere down the line, they have a legal responsibility as well. I hope that day will come.
During the public inquiry, we found out how the Post Office tried to cover up everything. How they continued to prosecute sub postmasters knowing the evidence they used were flawed. That they tried to sack the independent forensic accountants in 2014 to protect themselves when the accountants uncovered issues with Horizon. Then they set up a mediation scheme to make it look like they were making an effort to make good things with the sub postmasters. Yet all along, they continued lying to everyone, include the government.
Did the sum postmasters get justice in the end?
25 years is a long time to be accused of something you didn't do and not getting justice. Out of those 3500 accused, some has since died, taking their shame, grief, anger, trauma to grave.
So far, 95 sub postmasters had their convictions over turned and were exonerated. Getting your conviction overturned is a long process and one has to take their case to the court and go through the whole trial again. It can only be done on a case by case basis.
The government has now said they will pass new laws where those convicted will have their crimes overturned and compensated. It will be much quicker than going through the courts. £1bn has been set aside to compensate all the sub postmasters who were effected. So far £138m compensation has been paid to more than 2700 sub postmasters.
After thought
I first became aware of the Post Office scandal around 2022 when the public inquiry started. It caught my attention because it was was related to my previous line of work - IT outsourcing. Back then, I remember there were scant information about who the IT provider was, something that I was particularly interested to find out. It took me a while until I found Fujitsu's name, they was barely in the media. In fact the whole case was still quite low profile.
That was until the beginning of this year, when a TV drama called Mr Bates vs The Post Office was broadcast in UK. This was when the whole scandal was propelled to the limelight. Everybody in the UK became aware of it.
It has taken me a good few weeks to finish writing this post because so much has happened since the TV drama. I did a lot of research, read a lot of reports and followed many of the public inquiry questioning to make sure I fully understood the whole situation. It has been mentally and emotionally draining as the more you read the more heartbreaking it is. It has ended up as the longest post I have written on Hive. Despite that, and despite the fact not many people may read to the end (thanks if you are still here), I feel compelled to spread the story so you know how the lives of so many people were wrecked unjustly.
If you're interested to find out more, the following are very good summaries of the scandal Post Office Scandal Explained and The scandal that has rocked the UK Post Office
This is the trailer for Mr Bates vs The Post Office. I would highly recommended to watch the series if you can find it.
You can also watch how the Post Office is lying and the Director of Fujitsu for Europe being grilled by the Parliament and the public statutory inquiry
Wow, that is horrible! Well worth the wait that you promised though! Sadly, I think stuff like this happens a lot more often than we realize!
It probably does and maybe some goes under the radar without it ever coming to light till it's too late
I would imagine so.
Your longest blog kept my attention right to the end! Injustice on that scale is despicable, I definitely want to watch the series.
The sad part as you say, is that many people died with that dark cloud hanging over them!
The people responsible should hang their heads in shame.
I never heard about this before, thank you for telling that sad story.
I hope once the public inquiry is finished this year, those involved will be held responsible. I was watching one of the Post Office lawyers responsible for the prosecutions being grilled the other day over emails he wrote bashing the sub postmasters, and he kept on saying... I can't remember writing that... it was based on input from other people... it's not the tone I would normally use... it's been a long time I can't remember ... He had no shame at all😡
I certainly would hope so, but I find it upsetting that there are so many injustices in this world, and that many who are brought before the 'justice' system, get away with it!
It's awful how people suddenly 'can't remember,' to escape justice, while the victims have had their lives destroyed!
PS I think I'd better not forget to take my blood pressure tabs when I get to watch this series.
Ohh ye. I heard about this story, its fucking insane!
It's absolutely unbelievable how people can lie with their eyes wide open and not have regards for other people's feelings
Isn't that a common thing now are days?
It maybe common but hopefully it's not the norm, otherwise us humans are no better than monsters. I'd like to believe that humanity is better than that
It is a scandal. People in management must have known what was going on. I wonder how many of them will get prosecuted.
It will be interesting to see how things develop. I hope someone will go to jail for what they've done. Stripping them off the CBE and repaying bonus is not a reprimand
What a horrible happenings done by the post office and horizon. So sad it happened for many years. It's horrible to think some paid to prevent prison time and those who served time fighting for their innocence. I can't imagine how the families behind the scene were affected. A two against one scenario 😢
I have to say it didn't seem like a long article, you kept me on the edge of my seat. I just hope more justice is done and all the affected get proper compensation.
When you're a 'little person' up against a big corporation, it's so difficult to fight back. One guy went to court against the Post Office, and they decide to go extra heavy hand on him to deter the others. He lost in the end and got a legal bill of over £300k
Suicides, lives ruined, you can't compensate for that.
I know someone who was found guilty twenty years ago up in the North of Scotland because she could not explain the missing money.
Well no shit Sherlock, it wasn't missing.
There needs to be jail terms for those involved, and I hope Paula Vennells is first on the list for what she did.
I never watched the tv program, kinda makes my blood boil really.
And she probably thinks she'd be forgiven now that she's handed back her CBE.
The compensation us going to be tricky, how do you put a value on some of those things
Crazy what corporations' greed and their managers' fear of being caught can cover up. And for so long. Wow, just wow. This is so sad. I see why this piqued your interest and made you follow up. Unfortunately, I bet there are many more similar cover-ups, the 'little man' is always the one to pay...
There are so many sad stories here, literally 3500, everybody's life was ruined in one way or other. It's so sad how they were treated
A big cover-up. to be told you are the only one but over 3000+ people were told that was a shambles.
I just don't understand how you can get all the staff in the company to lie all together. Crazy
Súper excelente el post 🥇🥇🔥
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 52/62) Liquid rewards.
It goes back to how deeply rooted corruption and incompetence is in government and their associated entities, with big companies being in the same boat. It’s vile what these people will do to save face and money, truly appalling. Because it’s so corrupt there will be no jail time or prosecution of the corrupt criminals who allowed this to happen and that’s what pisses me off the most. If you or I, the peasants, did something like this we would be nailed to the wall. The upper class? Here’s a slap on the wrist and you have to have someone write an apology note you sign. Such bullshit.
I hope this results in firing of the associated people involved in the government.
Our government may not be perfect ( are there any in this world?) but I like to think we have processes in place to get to the bottom of the lies and cover up.
As to punishing those responsible, I really don't know what will be done. The Post Office CEO was awarded a CBE ( a relatively grand honour) during that period, for her services to the post office industry. She's been forced by the public to hand it back. Her successor handed back his bonus. The post office chairman was sacked this week. But all this hardly makes any difference to their lives.
I hope there will be some just punishment when the public inquiry is finished especially Fujitsu and they will be paying out big compensation to the sub postmasters. They've earned so much from this and other government contracts
Wow that is incredible and very sad for the sub postmasters. Parts like this are especially frustrating - cherry picking data to serve your purpose.
Unfortunately situations like this are all time common in the world and the people always get screwed. Sounds like Fujitsu should be accountable and have to pay damages so that it doesn't just come out of the tax payers pockets.
Great article. Amazing write up!
Thanks leaky!
I think Fujitsu definitely needs to cough up, they are one of the biggest IT supplier to the government, and literally hold the government to ransom as you can't just switch off the system overnight. They just extended the contract the other year😡
That's wild that they extended the contract. I'm sure Fujitsu is making all kinds of promises that things will be fixed and better this time around... but it seems like the problems only get worse in these types of situations.
This is really sad and scary. It shows abuse of power and also negligence, because with so many complaints and repeated incidents over time, this should have been investigated early on, and the operations should have been carefully checked. Now no one can compensate those who suffered mentally, morally, and especially not those who felt so overwhelmed in that situation that they ended up committing suicide. And I can see that it's not over. There are many interests involved in that technological failure, and who knows who really benefited from all that money and now doesn't want to let go. In a scandal of this magnitude, not everything comes to the surface, my friend.
This is a great post and I thank you for sharing. Your effort has not been in vain.
So many people were crying out their innocence at the beginning but they were all on their own. Social media wasn't so developed back then and no one knew about this one little incident. It wasn't until Mr Bates started coordinating things, then many single incidences became one big issue and scandal.
The TV series highlighted a few of the many cases, including a sub postmaster who walked in front of a bus and killed himself. Then the Post Office went to visit his widow and paid her a sum of money in return for her keeping silent 🤬. That's hope bad it is
How much pain those people and their families saw, the slander and being labeled a thief is frustrating.
It made me sad to think that those who have died did not get justice. 😭
I think they say the family of those who passed away can claim compensation, but money doesn't ease the pain and suffering for those effected. It's so sad
Sorry to say this, even if it is high profile murder case involving royalty will also take a long time to solve. Oh yes, just in case you are unaware, there is an old scam in my country involving parcel delivery to trick people into paying for things they did not purchase. Now, the parcel delivery scam had evolve to include a malware link to hack into mobile banking accounts or crypto wallets.
These low life scams have always been around that's why we should never click on any links
It seems the biggest problem is the same everywhere: justice doesn't work. Either too slow, or too light on the infractors, or both. Unfortunately we see the same over and over in Portugal. At least on that case some light was shed on the injustices; thanks for sharing!
I haven't watched the series yet but mum said it's really good but when she was explaining it to me I got so confused. I feel so sorry for all the thousands of people that went through this, ending up bankrupt or losing their houses or some even got the money to pay it all off. It's a shame that in this day and age, when something goes wrong and it's not that persons fault, people don't believe them. People always see the bad in people rather than the good.