British Post Office scandal
Ongoing UK legal and political scandal
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The British Post Office scandal, also called the Horizon IT scandal, involved the Post Office pursuing thousands of innocent subpostmasters for apparent financial shortfalls caused by faults in Horizon, an accounting software system developed by Fujitsu. Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 subpostmasters were convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting based on faulty Horizon data, with about 700 of these prosecutions carried out by the Post Office. Other subpostmasters were prosecuted but not convicted, forced to cover shortfalls caused by Horizon with their own money, or had their contracts terminated. The court cases, criminal convictions, imprisonments, loss of livelihoods and homes, debts, and bankruptcies led to stress, illness, family breakdowns and at least four suicides. In 2024, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described the scandal as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British history.
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Former sub-postmaster Alan Bates receives knighthood Credit: ODN Duration: 00:55Published | |
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Post Office Horizon expert admits seeing legal advice on trial obligationsA key figure behind the flawed IT system that led to hundreds of sub-postmasters being wrongly jailed has told the Post Office inquiry he had "not remembered" legal advice he was given about his..Sky News - Published | |
'The systems were working well', top Horizon engineer tells Post Office inquiryOne of the architects of the Post Office Horizon accounting system has admitted there were "discreet" bugs but it generally "worked well", dismissing suggestions he had knowledge of widespread flaws.Sky News - Published | |
Government 'devising options' to speed up the overturning of Post Office Horizon convictionsThe government is investigating ways to speed up the overturning of wrongful convictions of sub-postmasters affected by the Horizon scandal.Sky News - Published | |
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