Latest news with #PostOfficeScandal
Sky News
16 hours ago
- Politics
- Sky News
Post Office Capture scandal: Sir Alan Bates calls for those responsible for wrongful convictions to be 'brought to account'
Why you can trust Sky News Sir Alan Bates has called for those responsible for the wrongful convictions of sub postmasters in the Capture IT scandal to be "brought to account". It comes after Sky News unearthed a report showing Post Office lawyers knew of faults in the software nearly three decades ago. The documents, found in a garage by a retired computer expert, describe the Capture system as "an accident waiting to happen". 11:28 Sir Alan said the Sky News investigation showed "yet another failure of government oversight; another failure of the Post Office board to ensure [the] Post Office recruited senior people competent of bringing in IT systems" and management that was "out of touch with what was going on within its organisation". The unearthed Capture report was commissioned by the defence team for sub postmistress Patricia Owen and served on the Post Office in 1998 at her trial. It described the software as "quite capable of producing absurd gibberish" and concluded "reasonable doubt" existed as to "whether any criminal offence" had taken place. Ms Owen was found guilty of stealing from her branch and given a suspended prison sentence. She died in 2003 and her family had always believed the computer expert, who was due to give evidence on the report, "never turned up". Adrian Montagu reached out after seeing a Sky News report earlier this year and said he was actually stood down by the defending barrister with "no reason given". The barrister said he had no recollection of the case. Victims and their lawyers hope the newly found "damning" expert report, which may never have been seen by a jury, could help overturn Capture convictions. 1:49 'These people have to be brought to account' Sir Alan, the leading campaigner for victims of the Horizon Post Office scandal, said while "no programme is bug free, why [was the] Post Office allowed to transfer the financial risk from these bugs on to a third party ie the sub postmaster, and why did its lawyers continue with prosecutions seemingly knowing of these system bugs?" He continued: "Whether it was incompetence or corporate malice, these people have to be brought to account for their actions, be it for Capture or Horizon." More than 100 victims have come forward More than 100 victims, including those who were not convicted but who were affected by the faulty software, have so far come forward. Capture was used in 2,500 branches between 1992 and 1999, just before Horizon was introduced - which saw hundreds wrongfully convicted. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the body responsible for investigating potential miscarriages of justice, is currently looking at a number of Capture convictions. A CCRC spokesperson told Sky News: "We have received applications regarding 29 convictions which pre-date Horizon. 25 of these applications are being actively investigated by case review managers, and two more recent applications are in the preparatory stage and will be assigned to case review managers before the end of June. "We have issued notices under s.17 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 to Post Office Ltd requiring them to produce all material relating to the applications received. "To date, POL have provided some material in relation to 17 of the cases and confirmed that they hold no material in relation to another 5. The CCRC is awaiting a response from POL in relation to 6 cases." A spokesperson for the Department for Business and Trade said: "Postmasters negatively affected by Capture endured immeasurable suffering. We continue to listen to those who have been sharing their stories on the Capture system, and have taken their thoughts on board when designing the Capture Redress Scheme."
Sky News
a day ago
- Politics
- Sky News
Post Office scandal redress must not only be fair - it must be fast
"Exonerate and acknowledge" say victims of the Post Office Capture scandal. And it's easy to see why patience is wearing thin. To understand what happened with Capture, you must first understand Horizon. Both scandals centre not on flawed software alone, but how the Post Office reacted to it. 11:28 A business that used its powers to privately prosecute sub-postmasters, forcing them to pay back unexplained accounting shortfalls. Any suggestion that the system itself was at fault was dismissed. Capture is not a separate scandal - it's part of the same one. That's why Capture victims now want "parity" with Horizon victims when it comes to redress and exoneration. "It should now be a given," says Steve Lewis, who was sacked from his job as a sub-postmaster after raising concerns about shortfalls linked to Capture software. The government has promised an Autumn 2025 redress scheme. But Steve wants proposed interim payments to be "paid swiftly due to demographics, age, and well-being of the Capture group". And beyond compensation lie even more urgent demands: for those wrongfully convicted under Capture to be exonerated. Many of these individuals remain ineligible for redress, their names still tarnished. They're calling for blanket exonerations - just as in the Horizon scandal - to finally quash their convictions. The judiciary will push back, undoubtedly, against this. But, as Steve puts it, "time is not on our side" for redress and exoneration. Too many Capture victims have already died without ever knowing justice - as have many Horizon victims. If governments have learned anything over the years, it's this: justice delayed is justice denied.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Post Office scandal redress must not only be fair - it must be fast
"Exonerate and acknowledge" say victims of the Post Office Capture scandal. And it's easy to see why patience is wearing thin. To understand what happened with Capture, you must first understand . Both scandals centre not on flawed software alone, but how the Post Office reacted to it. A business that used its powers to privately prosecute sub-postmasters, forcing them to pay back unexplained accounting shortfalls. Any suggestion that the system itself was at fault was dismissed. Capture is not a separate scandal - it's part of the same one. That's why Capture victims now want "parity" with Horizon victims when it comes to redress and exoneration. "It should now be a given," says Steve Lewis, who was sacked from his job as a sub-postmaster after raising concerns about shortfalls linked to Capture software. The government has . But Steve wants proposed interim payments to be "paid swiftly due to demographics, age, and well-being of the Capture group". And beyond compensation lie even more urgent demands: for those wrongfully convicted under Capture to be exonerated. Many of these individuals remain ineligible for redress, their names still tarnished. They're calling for blanket exonerations - just as in the Horizon scandal - to finally quash their convictions. The judiciary will push back, undoubtedly, against this. Read more: But, as Steve puts it, "time is not on our side" for redress and exoneration. Too many Capture victims have already died without ever knowing justice - as have many Horizon victims. If governments have learned anything over the years, it's this: justice delayed is justice denied. Redress must not only be fair - it must be fast.
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
HMRC seeks to extend contracts with company behind Post Office scandal
HMRC is seeking to extend two contracts with the beleaguered IT firm at the centre of the Post Office scandal. Fujitsu's faulty Horizon software led to the wrongful prosecution of more than 900 sub-postmasters by the Post Office between 1999 and 2015. However, the tax authority has sought ministerial approval to extend two highly lucrative contracts currently valued at more than £330 million with the Japanese firm, just weeks before the inquiry into the scandal is due to produce its first report. It comes more than a year after Fujitsu wrote to the Cabinet Office to say it would not bid for new government contracts during the inquiry unless it was asked. When approached by The Telegraph about the extensions, a Fujitsu spokesman said the firm continued to adhere to the restrictions it had put in place. Lord Arbuthnot, who campaigned for the Horizon victims as a Tory MP, called any extension of Fujitsu government contracts 'truly wrong'. Meanwhile a former sub-postmistress who was sent to prison while pregnant because of Fujitsu's faulty IT system, said extending such contracts was 'an insult to victims and the inquiry itself'. HMRC, which recently admitted to losing £49 million in a series of phishing attacks on taxpayers, has sought ministerial approval to extend two contracts – one for its data centre operations and project services and another for hosting more than a dozen applications on a virtual platform through a virtually managed environment (VME) support contract. These contracts were initially valued at £52 million and £168.8 million, respectively. However, in written evidence to the Treasury select committee, then chaired by Harriet Baldwin, HMRC went on to cite higher figures – £78 million for the data centre operations contract and £253 million for the VME Support Contract. It is not known the exact sum the taxman has proposed to pay to extend the two contracts, the first of which expired at the end of March. The second will come to an end this month. The Telegraph can reveal that HMRC officials have sought ministerial sign-off in order to finalise both deals. Lord Arbuthnot said: 'I think it is truly wrong. [Fujitsu] helped the Post Office prosecute sub-postmasters even though Fujitsu knew well of the flaws in the software on which the sub-postmasters were being prosecuted 'And they told everybody that they couldn't remotely change the sub-postmasters' accounts, even though they themselves were doing it and knew they were doing it. 'If that was an individual doing things like that they would be facing many years in prison, and for the Government to extend contracts to someone who really ought to be behind bars seems to me to be quite wrong. 'Fujitsu has also not yet paid a penny towards the redress that sub-postmasters are getting and they're trying to minimise the hundreds of millions of pounds that they really ought to be paying.' In January last year, Paul Patterson, the chief executive of Fujitsu's European arm, told MPs at a business and trade committee hearing that his firm had a 'moral obligation' to contribute to compensation for victims of the scandal. Seema Misra, who was eight weeks pregnant when sent to prison for theft and false accounting at her old branch in West Byfleet, Surrey, said: 'It's terrible, especially when the whole country knows this is a firm at the forefront of the scandal. 'The international company ruined people's lives and HMRC shouldn't be thinking about renewing the contacts at this point.' Mrs Misra, 50, who was awarded an OBE this year for services to justice, said: ' Fujitsu has a lot to answer for, and instead of holding them to account, they are just extending contracts. It's a real insult, not just to victims but to the inquiry itself, to do this before the chair has produced any part of his report.' A Government source said: 'We inherited these contracts from the previous government. Extending them would be for a limited time on strict terms whilst we remove Fujitsu from government systems securely. If the previous government had acted earlier, we would not be in this position. 'We must never forget the lives ruined by the Horizon scandal, and no amount of redress can take away that pain. But justice can and must be done. This government is determined to hold those responsible to account, and will continue to make rapid progress on compensation and redress. 'Since we took office we have more than quadrupled the amount of redress paid to the victims and in March the business secretary, Johnny Reynolds, met with Fujitsu to begin the process of talking to them about paying compensation.' A Fujitsu spokesman said: 'We continue to work with the UK Government to ensure we adhere to the voluntary restrictions we put in place regarding bidding for new contracts while the Post Office inquiry is ongoing.' Former postal affairs minister Kevin Hollinrake said: 'Fujitsu has already admitted corporate responsibility for this national scandal and the biggest miscarriage of justice in modern history. 'The least Labour could do is secure the interim payment that we pushed for whilst in office before pressing on with these multi-hundred million contracts. 'Anything less would be another betrayal of postmasters and the British taxpayer.'
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Daily Mail
Former sub-postmistress SEEMA MISRA: Princess Anne gave me an OBE, but if people don't go behind bars for what they've done, we'll give it back...
When Seema Misra was told that the King wanted to award her an OBE for 'services to justice', she was unsure whether to accept it. 'I was shocked,' she says. 'It's a good thing, it's a title I respect, it's the Royal family.' But for Seema, 50, there were strong reasons to turn it down, as justice – in her case and in that of so many others – has still not been served. Almost 15 years since the former sub-postmistress was jailed for 'stealing' £74,000 from the Post Office, and four years since her conviction was overturned, she has yet to receive full damages – or see consequences for the people who ruined her life. YOU covered the sub-postmasters' case in 2022, and ITV 's 2024 drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office re-ignited the public's interest. 'Now people tap my shoulder in the supermarket and say, 'The whole country is behind you', which is powerful to hear, but we're still living with this injustice, day in, day out.' Seema accepted her OBE, attending the ceremony at Windsor Castle in April with her husband Davinder, 54, sons Aditya and Jairaj, 24 and 13, and her elderly mother-in-law. HRH The Princess Royal presented the award. 'She was really good,' says Seema. 'I started explaining that we still wanted accountability, but she knew everything already. She congratulated me for not giving up. It was a good day.' And yet Seema is adamant, 'If people don't go behind bars for what they did, we will be giving the OBE back.' She has every reason to be angry. We meet in the Surrey home she shares with her husband, his mother and their sons. It has five bedrooms and a yard for their two dogs. They have been here a year, a move made possible by two interim compensation payments. Before this, the family shared a one-bedroom flat: the Post Office had taken their business, capital, property and good name. It's hard to convey how much they lost. 'Seema and I came to the UK with zero pence and big goals,' says Davinder. Arriving from New Delhi in 1999, the newly married couple worked hard – in restaurants, at Tesco and at an estate agent. In less than two years, they bought their first buy-to-rent property at auction. They soon built a thriving property business, and in 2005 sold most of it to buy the West Byfleet Post Office and shop. But there were problems with Fujitsu's Horizon IT system from the start. 'At the end of the first day, the system recorded a shortfall of £100,' Seema recalls. A trainer who was teaching her the system instructed her to take £100 from the till in the shop – the couple's own separate business – and put it into the Post Office to balance the books; otherwise, they couldn't open the next day. This pattern continued, with Seema increasingly alarmed. The next week there was a different trainer, who noted the constant shortfall and called the Horizon helpline. The advisor talked the trainer through an IT procedure – at the end of which the shortfall doubled before their eyes. Still, at the end of that week, the trainer just left Seema to it. Years later, when lawyers tried to call these trainers as witnesses in her trial, the Post Office claimed they didn't exist. The shortfalls mounted, in 2008 Seema was suspended and in 2010 she stood trial for theft and false accounting. A warm person who laughs easily, she somehow remained strong and optimistic throughout the legal proceedings. 'I'm good, honest, god-fearing and I'd done nothing wrong, so I really believed it would be OK,' she says. Mid-trial, she found out she was pregnant – the couple had been trying for a second child for eight years and Seema had been treated for polycystic ovary syndrome. 'I was happy, but when I told Davinder he just said, 'OK.' He had no expression at all.' Davinder remembers it. 'Normally, I'd have been jumping up and down, but I could see the way this was going. I knew they were going to take Seema away from me.' The guilty verdict confirmed his worst fears. Seema was sentenced to 15 months in prison on 11 November 2010, Aditya's tenth birthday. This is the point where her voice breaks and her eyes fill with tears. 'I can't come to terms with going to prison,' she says. 'It's the shame. The stigma. We believed that only bad people go to prison.' She and Davinder kept her conviction secret from her parents in India and from Aditya, who was told his mum was in a special hospital because of her pregnancy. 'If I hadn't been pregnant, I'd have killed myself,' she says. 'The cells were filthy, the meat was halal, which I couldn't eat. There was a lot of self-harming, so when you used the phone there'd be blood on it.' When Seema was released after four months for good behaviour, she barely left home. She gave birth to their second son, Jairaj, wearing her electronic monitoring tag. 'All I could think was, 'What must the midwife think? What kind of mother did she think I'd be?'' For years, even while Seema joined other Post Office victims to clear their names, the shame continued. 'I'm proud of my family but I didn't want the world to know my sons were related to me,' she says. 'I never took them to school or picked them up. At my son's cricket matches, I wouldn't go on to the field. I'd park where I could see him without others seeing me.' A group action of 555 sub-postmasters, including Seema, led to the 2019 High Court ruling that the Horizon IT system was 'not remotely robust'. The case was settled for £58 million, leaving claimants with £12 million after legal costs. And in April 2021, Seema's own conviction was officially overturned. A public inquiry established that bugs in the Horizon system had been detected as far back as 1999, but that the Post Office had withheld evidence and edited witness statements to support their prosecutions. The Metropolitan Police has opened a criminal investigation into personnel from the Post Office and Fujitsu. 'I want every single person named in the inquiry, from the government, the Post Office and Fujitsu, to be held accountable,' says Seema. Paula Vennells, the former Post Office CEO, has had her CBE revoked, but for Seema it is not enough. 'This isn't just about people 'making a mistake',' she says. 'How could I be sent to prison, with no evidence, for a crime I didn't commit, when so many people who lied and withheld evidence are still walking around with no criminal consequences? Paula Vennells is just one person. Alan Cook, a former Post Office managing director is another. Angela van den Bogerd, a Post Office executive, is another. There are so many.' To date, £892 million has been paid to more than 6,000 claimants, with many receiving far less than they believe they're owed. Sir Alan Bates recently accused the government of running a 'quasi kangaroo court' payout system for victims, and revealed he has been offered less than half of his claim. 'They are dragging it out to wear us down,' says Seema. 'It's like torture. They hope we'll accept a lower figure because we want closure.' The Misra family is still waiting to see how much they will receive in total. Bates predicts it will be November 2027 before claims are settled at the current rate, and last month urged victims to take the government to court. Seema has her doubts. 'I've been through court and it's not easy. We'd be using public funds to fight the battle, and the Post Office would be using public funds to defend itself. I think it's a misuse of everyone's money.' Still, she understands why victims would take this route. 'I know the frustration and anger, as it is taking so long,' she says. 'It hurts to think of our business growth in our first five years compared to today,' adds Davinder. The couple sold their Post Office shop in 2010 for less than half they had paid for it. They have since moved away from West Byfleet and started again: they began building another portfolio, acquiring a property using the interim payment and helped by Aditya, who graduated from Imperial College London and works at Deutsche Bank. 'Through all this, our sons have been our focus,' says Seema. 'For years, we might be at meetings, court hearings or doing interviews when they were at school, but when they came home we put on a happy face. They never missed their cricket, tuition, guitar lessons… If they'd known what was happening, they'd be different people.' It wasn't until 2019, after the High Court ruling, that the couple told them the truth. 'Aditya was 19 and he was so shocked,' says Seema. 'He never knew I'd been to prison or anything. He read up about it, watched interviews with me and was so proud. And we're so proud of him. He has done so well. We have come through together.'
