Post Office bosses should be hauled before police after covert recordings suggested they covered up the Horizon IT scandal, MPs have said.
More than 900 subpostmasters were convicted for theft and fraud between 1999 and 2015 after the flawed IT system made it look like they were swindling money. Recordings from 2013, obtained by Channel 4, appear to show that the Post Office and tech giant Fujitsu knew that accounts could be accessed remotely without subpostmasters knowledge - something they denied for years.
The tapes show conversations between Post Office executives and two forensic accountants from Second Sight, brought in to carry out an independent probe. In one recording, the Post Office’s IT specialist Simon Baker admitted accounts could be accessed from hundreds of miles away, something described as a “nightmare scenario” by the accountants.
Mr Baker said that when he shared this information with senior Post Office executives “their faces dropped”. The accountants recommended the-then Post Office boss Paula Vennells should be briefed on their findings. They were later fired.
Campaigning MP Lord Arbuthnot broke down when he heard the recordings. He said: “I’ve been doing this for 14, 15 years now and to think that a British institution could behave like this, owned by us, is just terrible.” Commons Business Committee Chairman Liam Byrne warned “justice should not be delayed a second longer than necessary” and an investigation should be launched as soon as the official public inquiry concludes.
Mr Byrne said: “These recordings reveal that the Post Office continued to lock innocent people up for at least two years on a fault they knew about. Surely there is now enough evidence for the police to question under caution the Post Office’s leadership at the time. The public inquiry has to run its course to resolve the issue of compensation, but justice should not be delayed a second longer than necessary.”
Give Alan Bates a knighthood for exposing Post Office scandal
It is time for Alan Bates to be honoured with a knighthood or CBE after former Post Office boss Paula Vennells handed back her gong.
The former postmaster has led the decades-long fight to expose the Horizon IT scandal. He has become a national treasure after millions watched his long and painful fight for justice portrayed in the ITV drama, Mr Bates vs the Post Office.
Usually honours are announced to mark the New Year and the Monarch's birthday, but in special circumstances they can also be awarded at other times.
So Rishi Sunak, give Alan Bates an honour now.
Sign our petition HERE to demand Alan Bates gets an honour.
North Durham MP Kevan Jones, who sits on the Horizon compensation board, told the Mirror: “I think the police have got to get involved. Waiting for the Inquiry to publish its findings is increasingly becoming an indefensible position.”
Labour MP Kate Osborne added: “These recordings are hugely damning and provide us with even more proof that they knew about the scale of the miscarriage of justice they were causing.”
Fujitsu and the Post Office declined to comment to Channel 4 News on the recordings. The public inquiry into the Horizon scandal resumes next month.