The Post Office pushed forward with tons of of sub-postmaster prosecutions after a authorized chief suppressed an investigation into its defective IT system to guard the enterprise.
Rob Wilson, who was the agency’s head of felony legislation, stated the corporate ought to ‘grit its enamel and get on with prosecuting folks’, the inquiry into the scandal heard.
An electronic mail introduced to the long-running inquiry revealed Mr Wilson warned colleagues in 2010 that ‘untold’ reputational harm could possibly be completed in the event that they probed suspected bugs in Horizon software program.
Instead, the accounting information – which wrongly made it appear like cash was lacking from tons of of branches – continued for use as the premise for prosecuting postmasters till 2015.
Campaigners final night time stated his remarks illustrate the tradition of denial throughout the organisation which helped deliver concerning the worst miscarriage of justice in trendy British historical past.
Rob Wilson, who was the agency’s head of felony legislation, stated the corporate ought to ‘grit its enamel and get on with prosecuting folks’, the inquiry into the scandal heard
One of Mr Wilson’s Post Office investigators was yesterday branded ‘threatening’ and ‘aggressive’ in his pursuit of sub-postmasters as he gave proof on the inquiry
More than 900 postmasters had been prosecuted for stealing from the Post Office between 1999 and 2015, with at the least 180 prosecuted after Mr Wilson’s electronic mail in March 2010.
Public anger on the scandal has exploded after it was dropped at a brand new viewers of tens of millions by the ITV collection, Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
As ministers this week scrambled to organize landmark laws exonerating all wrongly convicted postmasters – and put aside an estimated £1billion compensation pot – questions have mounted for the attorneys who suggested the organisation.
One of Mr Wilson’s Post Office investigators was yesterday branded ‘threatening’ and ‘aggressive’ in his pursuit of sub-postmasters as he gave proof on the inquiry.
Stephen Bradshaw and his colleagues ‘behaved like Mafia gangsters’ seeking to acquire ‘bounty with threats and lies’, claimed victims of the scandal. He was additionally proven a memo indicating {that a} plea deal was supplied to at least one postmaster ‘as long as the defendant stipulated…there was nothing improper with Horizon’. He admitted this was ‘in all probability not acceptable’.
On March 3, 2010, Mr Wilson, head of felony legislation between 2002 and 2012, despatched an inner electronic mail saying it was ‘crucial’ that an investigation into Horizon be performed if it was suspected to have defects.
Yet he then went on to advocate doing the precise reverse, warning it could undermine proof ‘within the instances continuing by the felony courts’ because it instructed an absence of ‘confidence in Horizon’. As nicely as being seen as a vindication of the postmasters, he warned, the potential influence can be ‘a lot wider’ for the Post Office.
‘Every workplace within the nation shall be seen to be working a compromised system with untold harm to the enterprise,’ his electronic mail stated.
‘To proceed prosecuting alleged offenders understanding that there’s an ongoing investigation to find out the veracity of Horizon is also detrimental to the repute of my workforce.’
He concluded his electronic mail by suggesting Fujitsu – the corporate behind the Horizon system – wanted to be saved on facet to proceed offering statements in help of the felony and civil instances.
Mr Wilson’s place appeared simply as staunch two years later. An electronic mail from one among his authorized colleagues to Post Office basic counsel Susan Crichton in March 2012 stated: ‘Rob stays firmly of the view that an audit shouldn’t be carried out.’
The authorized colleague then quoted Mr Wilson as saying, ‘in his phrases’, the Post Office ‘has to grit its enamel and get on with prosecuting and defending civil actions’.
Giving proof on the public inquiry final 12 months, Mr Wilson admitted this had certainly been his view and ‘clearly’ he now deeply regretted sending the 2010 electronic mail.
Nonetheless, his witness assertion to the inquiry stated: ‘I don’t imagine that challenges to the integrity of Horizon modified my recommendation concerning any method to investigation and disclosure of Horizon information instances.’
Last night time, victims of the scandal known as for Mr Wilson to be held to account.
Chris Trousdale, 41, who was convicted of fraud in 2004 over non-existent shortfalls of £7,800 at his submit workplace in Lealholm, North Yorkshire, stated: ‘I want the Met Police and the CPS would ‘grit their enamel’ and take a look at the perpetrators of this injustice.
Fujitsu is the corporate behind the defective Horizon system that led to tons of of sub-postmasters being wrongly prosecuted
‘If you need to understand how on earth this egregious behaviour went on for therefore lengthy on the Post Office, simply take a look at the actions of individuals like Wilson. He lobbied to reject an impartial assessment of Horizon as a result of it could make it harder to prosecute harmless folks.’
Wendy Martin, 53, whose life was destroyed after she was blamed for losses at her Post Office in York and left £930,000 in debt, stated: ‘People like Wilson do not know what they’ve completed to folks like me – and admittedly, I do not suppose they care.’
The lawyer for Alan Bates, the previous postmaster-turned-campaigner who impressed the ITV collection, final night time stated the proof painted a disturbing image of the Post Office.
Asked if the organisation’s actions amounted to malevolence, James Hartley informed Channel 4 News: ‘What we’re seeing popping out of the inquiry… suggests the reply to that’s Yes.’
A Post Office spokesman stated: ‘We absolutely share the goals of the general public inquiry, set as much as get to the reality of what occurred prior to now and accountability… We are deeply conscious of the human value of the scandal and are doing all we will to proper the wrongs of the previous, so far as that’s attainable.’