The independent public inquiry, established in September 2020 and made statutory the following June, has brought further revelations. Why is the scandal back in the headlines? The Met is already investigating two former Fujitsu experts, who were witnesses in the trials, for perjury and perverting the course of justice. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. For more information see our Privacy Policy. skip past newsletter promotionĮnter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. On Friday, the Metropolitan police confirmed for the first time that the Post Office is under criminal investigation over “potential fraud offences” committed during the scandal. To date no Post Office staff have been punished for the scandal. What about those who pursued the prosecutions? However, last month it emerged that the Post Office had almost halved the amount set aside for payouts as fewer owner-operators than expected had won or brought appeals. More than £130m has so far been paid out to about 2,500 Post Office workers across the three schemes. The overturned convictions process is one of three different compensation schemes that have been established as the scandal developed, and last September ministers promised that every branch owner-operator whose wrongful conviction had been overturned would receive £600,000 in compensation from the government. It has also come under fire for further blunders, such as tax being charged on compensation and offering bosses about £1.6m in bonuses, with handling of the Horizon inquiry one of four “metrics” on which payments were awarded. Dozens of victims have died before they could receive any compensation. However, there has been widespread criticism that the Post Office has been dragging its feet with delays to payments. What kind of justice have victims got since?īy last month, 142 appeal case reviews had been completed out of 900 people convicted during the scandal, with 93 convictions overturned and 54 upheld, withdrawn or refused permission to appeal.Ī total of £24m has been paid out in relation to overturned convictions. However, even since the computer system was found to be defective, the Post Office has still opposed a number of appeals by operators. In 2021, the ruling was upheld on appeal, quashing the convictions of some workers who were wrongly accused of committing crimes, paving the way for compensation. In 2019, a group of post office operators won a high court case in which their convictions were ruled wrongful and the Horizon IT system was ruled to be at fault. Victims and their families were severely hit by stress, and in many cases illness, with the scandal linked to at least four suicides.įor years the Post Office, which has the power to investigate and prosecute without the need for police involvement, continued to defend itself against accusations and press reports highlighting problems with the IT system, developed by Japan’s Fujitsu, including through legal means. Even those who did not go to court had to drum up money to cover nonexistent shortfalls. Many were left struggling financially or even bankrupt following convictions. Hundreds of sub-post office operators ended up with criminal records and punishments ranging from having to do community service and wear electronic tags to being jailed. The scandal is frequently described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history. In total, about 3,500 branch owner-operators were wrongly accused of taking money from their businesses, with more than 900 prosecuted by the Post Office despite protesting their innocence and raising issues with the software in their defence. That was despite knowing that from at least 2010 onwards that there were faults in the centralised accounting software.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |