Post Office Horizon inquiry has discovered ‘sufficient proof’ for probe

An inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal has discovered ‘greater than sufficient proof’ for police to launch a legal investigation into senior workers, legal professionals representing the victims have claimed.

The Post Office wrongfully prosecuted greater than 700 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses between 1999 and 2015 for theft, fraud and false accounting based mostly on info from a not too long ago put in pc system known as Horizon.

The scandal is taken into account essentially the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British historical past, resulting in the inquiry into what went unsuitable, and who was accountable. 

Postmasters have claimed that Post Office senior workers lined up dozens of bugs and needs to be investigated for perverting the course of justice, The Times stories.

The inquiry has been proven correspondents which present how senior workers demanded the Post Office hurried up with prosecuting folks, years after issues had been raised. 

Seema Misra (pictured), 46, was sentenced to fifteen months in jail in 2010 regardless of being eight weeks pregnant along with her second little one. Her conviction was quashed in 2021 

Former subpostmasters Janet Skinner (left) and Tracy Felstead outdoors the Royal Courts of Justice, London in 2021. Their convictions had been quashed

Investigators’ bonuses had been decided by how a lot cash was recovered below the Proceeds of Crime Act – and one postmistress was prosecuted for theft after her investigator reported there was inadequate proof. 

Lawyers need the chairman of the inquiry, Sir Wyn Williams, at hand over information to the director of public prosecutions when it finishes subsequent yr.

Paul Marshall, a barrister who has represented postmasters, advised The Times: ‘Based on current weeks’ hearings there may be greater than sufficient proof for the police to open legal investigations into a number of senior Post Office workers.’ 

Among the victims preventing for justice is postmistress Janet Skinner, who was jailed for 9 months after being falsely accused of an accounting error, main her to lose her household dwelling.

Ms Skinner, who has a proper function within the inquiry, stated proof supporting a legal probe into senior Post Office workers was a ‘focus’ for her group. 

Another postmistress, Seema Misra, 46, was sentenced to fifteen months in jail in 2010 regardless of being eight weeks pregnant along with her second little one. Both convictions – together with greater than 30 others – had been quashed in 2021.

In current weeks, she has seen inner emails from investigators and legal professionals which present the Post Office didn’t disclose key paperwork to her authorized group.

This included details about a bug within the system impacting a number of Post Offices which had been discovered within the lead as much as her trial in addition to the Ismay report into Horizon.

Her 2010 trial grew to become a check case for the way dependable Horizon was, along with her legal professionals telling the courtroom that the system couldn’t be trusted. 

Lawyers need the chairman of the inquiry, Sir Wyn Williams (pictured), at hand over information to the director of public prosecutions when it finishes subsequent yr

The Met Police, which is presently probing two ex Horizon IT specialists for perjury, can be participating within the inquiry and has entry to key paperwork.

Three witnesses are stated to have already been warned they don’t have to reply questions in case they incriminate themselves, whereas one other two ex workers are anticipated to obtain the identical warning.

Ed Henry KC additionally steered that there could possibly be sufficient for an investigation, telling the inquiry in written submissions that the proof ‘has begun to disclose a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice’ between 2006 and 2010 and within the years after.

He claimed there was a ‘poisonous company tradition of secrecy and misinformation’ and that the Post Office ‘specialised in propaganda and policing its personal folks’. 

An nameless barrister warned, nonetheless, that the inquiry ‘will not advocate folks for prosecution except there is a cheap prospect of conviction’.

In September, the Government introduced that each postmaster wrongfully convicted within the Post Office IT scandal will likely be provided £600,000 in compensation to settle their declare.

Those who had been convicted on the premise of proof from the defective Horizon pc system and had their conviction overturned will likely be provided the cash.

In September, the Government introduced that each postmaster wrongfully convicted within the Post Office IT scandal will likely be provided £600,000 in compensation to settle their declare. (File picture) 

The Mail has fought a ten-year battle for justice for innocent postmasters whose lives had been ruined by the ordeal. 

Many had their spotless reputations blighted by legal data, whereas some suffered from melancholy and even took their very own lives.

In 1999, the Post Office rolled out the Horizon accounting IT system, however faults within the software program led to shortfalls in department accounts.

Postmasters had been required to ‘make good’ the discrepancies with their very own cash or face fast suspension, dismissal or worse.

A Post Office spokesperson stated: ‘We totally share the goals of the present public inquiry, set as much as independently set up what went unsuitable previously and accountability. 

‘We’re aware of the human value of the scandal and we’re doing all we will to proper the wrongs of the previous so far as that’s potential. 

‘Both Post Office and authorities are dedicated to offering full, honest and closing compensation for victims.’