Money wrongfully taken from victims of the Horizon scandal could have gone into the pay of Post Office executives, MPs have been advised.
Nick Read, chief govt of the Post Office, mentioned the corporate has nonetheless “not got to the bottom of” what occurred to the money paid by sub-postmasters and mistresses in a bid to cowl the false monetary black holes created by the Horizon software program.
He mentioned it has been investigated two or 3 times by exterior auditors, however it’s one thing “we have struggled to uncover” as a consequence of numerous points, together with a low high quality of information.
As it occurred:
MPs quiz Fujitsu – after admission of ‘bugs and errors’
However, he admitted it’s a risk the cash taken from department managers may have been a part of “hefty numeration packages for executives”.
“It’s possible, absolutely it’s possible,” he mentioned.
Mr Read mentioned the knowledge has been offered to the statutory inquiry into the Horizon scandal, which can look into the query of the place the cash went.
He appeared earlier than MPs on the enterprise committee alongside Paul Patterson, director of Europe’s Fujitsu Services Limited.
It follows renewed outrage over the difficulty after the airing of ITV drama Mr Bates Vs the Post Office, which documented the postmasters’ 20-year combat for justice.
Between 1999 and 2015, greater than 700 Post Office department managers had been handed legal convictions for theft and false accounting after discrepancies in Fujitsu’s Horizon system made it seem as if cash was lacking at their shops.
Some went to jail, many had been financially ruined and the scandal has been linked to no less than 4 suicides.
Firm ‘concerned from begin’ has compensation ‘obligation’
Mr Patterson advised MPs he was sorry on behalf of his firm – as he accepted it must pay into the redress scheme.
“Fujitsu would like to apologise for our part in this appalling miscarriage of justice,” Mr Patterson mentioned.
“We were involved from the very start.
“We did have bugs and errors within the system and we did assist the Post Office of their prosecutions of the sub-postmasters and for that we’re really sorry.”
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He mentioned the corporate gave proof which was used to ship harmless individuals to jail, and whereas he didn’t know precisely when bosses first knew of points associated to Horizon, it had bugs at a “very early stage”.
He went on to say that the corporate has a “moral obligation” to contribute to the compensation scheme for these whose lives had been ruined by the scandal.
He mentioned that he has spoken to the corporate’s bosses in Japan and it expects to have a dialog with the federal government about how a lot it ought to pay.
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The authorities has put aside £1 billion for Horizon victims and beforehand indicated it can pursue Fujitsu for the prices if the inquiry finds it’s in charge.
Mr Patterson, who has been in his present function since 2019, mentioned he didn’t know why the tech agency did not act when it knew there have been glitches within the system.
“On a personal level I wish I did and following my employment in 2019, I’ve looked back on those situations for the company and from the evidence I’ve seen, I just don’t know.”
MPs ‘shocked’ by proof
MPs at occasions appeared annoyed on the lack of solutions from the 2 executives about who knew what and when.
Mr Read was unable to say when the Post Office knew that distant entry to the Horizon software program was potential.
The assertion that distant entry to the Horizon terminals was not possible was central to the Post Office’s place that there had been no miscarriages of justice within the years it was prosecuting its workers.
It was solely in 2017, throughout High Court proceedings introduced by a bunch of greater than 500 sub-postmasters, that bosses admitted it was potential – paving the best way for convictions to be quashed.
Business and Trade Committee chairman Liam Byrne mentioned he had been “fairly shocked” by the proof.
‘The entire factor is insanity’
The committee additionally heard from Alan Bates and different campaigners, who had been performed by well-known actors within the ITV drama concerning the scandal
They expressed frustration with the tempo of the compensation scheme, saying it was “bogged down” by purple tape and forms.
Mr Bates mentioned his personal course of, for what he referred to as “financial redress”, had been beset by delays.
“I think it was 53 days before they asked three very simple questions,” he defined. “It’s madness, the whole thing is madness.
“And there is not any transparency behind it, which is much more irritating. We have no idea what’s taking place to those instances as soon as they disappear in there.”
Wrongfully convicted former sub-postmistress Jo Hamilton said it was “nearly such as you’re being retried … it simply goes on and on and on”.
Source: information.sky.com”