Fujitsu boss dubbed postmaster ‘nasty chap’ who desires ‘to garbage’ agency in e-mail
A Fujitsu supervisor labelled a subpostmaster as a “nasty chap” who was “all out to rubbish” the tech firm’s title forward of his courtroom case.
Peter Sewell, who was a part of the Post Office Account Security Team at Fujitsu, made the remarks about subpostmaster Lee Castleton in a 2006 e-mail which was proven to the official public inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal.
Mr Castleton, who was performed by Will Mellor within the ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office, was left bankrupt after shedding his courtroom combat in opposition to the Post Office over a £25,000 shortfall at his department. The shortfall had truly been brought on by Fujitsu’s defective Horizon system which made it seem as if cash was lacking from his outlet.
In an e-mail trade dated December 2006 forward of Mr Castleton’s authorized proceedings, Mr Sewell described Fetters Lane, the highway the courtroom was located on, as a spot “they used to hang people out to dry”. He gave the impression to be giving phrases of encouragement to his colleague IT safety analyst Andrew Dunks forward of a listening to in courtroom.
“It’s up to you to maintain absolute strength and integrity no matter what the prosecution throw at you,” Mr Sewell advised him . “We will all be behind you hoping you come through unscathed. Bless you.” Mr Dunks replied: “Thank you for those very kind and encouraging words. I had to pause halfway through reading it to wipe away a small tear…”
Mr Sewell advised the inquiry he could not bear in mind writing the e-mail and he did not know why it was written. Pressed by the inquiry attorneys on whether or not “it would be unfair to describe you as somebody who saw protecting Fujitsu as important”, he admitted: “We all protect our own companies, yes.”
After listening to the proof, Mr Castleton advised the BBC: “They set out to ruin me, which they did, and it was groupthink – it wasn’t just one person. It was a group of people and it’s a case of ‘sorry, not sorry’ isn’t it?”
Asked if he had a message for Mr Sewell, he stated: “I hope you have as many sleepless nights as I have.”
Meanwhile Fujitsu stated it’s going to cease bidding for Government contracts whereas the inquiry into the Post Office scandal is ongoing. The Japanese big wrote to ministers on Thursday to say it’s “voluntarily” selecting to not bid for Government contracts, until requested, whereas the inquiry is ongoing.
L abour MP Kate Osborne, who has campaigned on the difficulty, advised the Mirror: “I’m pleased that Fujitsu has said this but I don’t think they’ve suddenly found their morals. I think what’s happened is there’s been massive reputational damage to them because of this scandal.” She also called for “a full review of the existing contracts that they’ve got because I don’t think anybody has any trust in them”.
The Jarrow MP’s constituent Christopher Head, who had been Britain’s youngest postmaster, was pushed out of enterprise after he was wrongly blamed for an £88,000 shortfall. “Chris and the rest of the subpostmasters have seen Fujitsu win contract after contract whilst this has been going on and they must be furious about it,” she stated.
“They’re making millions or billions of pounds and the senior people are awarding themselves bonuses while they’re still fighting many years later for any kind of recompense or compensation for the ordeal they’ve all been put through. The fact they’re still fighting for what they believe the correct level of compensation is is disgraceful.”
