Apr 23, 2021 | Parcel, Post |
Thirty nine sub-postmasters who were wrongly prosecuted between 2003 to 2013 by the UK Post Office have had their criminal convictions overturned.
The UK Post Office has said it sincerely apologises for serious failures in its historical conduct of prosecutions of postmasters, resulting in the Court of Appeal formally overturning 39 convictions – in uncontested appeals.
Post Office Chairman Tim Parker said: “The Post Office is extremely sorry for the impact on the lives of these postmasters and their families that was caused by historical failures.
“Post Office stopped prosecutions soon after its separation from Royal Mail a decade ago and has throughout this appeals process supported the overturning of the vast majority of convictions.
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Bad software sent postal workers to jail, because no one wanted to admit it could be wrong
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Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images
For the past 20 years UK Post Office employees have been dealing with a piece of software called Horizon, which had a fatal flaw: bugs that made it look like employees stole tens of thousands of British pounds. This led to some local postmasters being convicted of crimes, even being sent to prison, because the Post Office doggedly insisted the software could be trusted. After fighting for decades, 39 people are finally having their convictions overturned, after what is reportedly the largest miscarriage of justice that the UK has ever seen.
Yes, that Horizon branch office management IT system
Lindsay Clark Wed 7 Apr 2021 // 10:25 UTC Share
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The UK Post Office has awarded Fujitsu a £42.5m contract extension to run the Horizon IT system, faults in which led to dozens of subpostmasters being wrongly prosecuted.
In December last year, the Court of Appeal formally cleared six subpostmasters of criminal convictions including false representation, false accounting, fraud and theft. Some of their convictions date back to 2004.
The ruling followed an October statement from the Post Office, which said it would not oppose 44 out of 47 appeals.
The Post Office had relied on evidence from its Fujitsu-made Horizon branch office management IT system when it privately prosecuted a large number of subpostmasters during the 2000s and early 2010s.
Bank of Ireland UK s 2020 profits slide
Updated / Tuesday, 16 Mar 2021
11:14
Bank of Ireland recently announced that it would close 15 of its Northern Ireland branches, leaving 13 open
Bank of Ireland UK has reported an underlying profit before tax of £50m for 2020, down from £166m in 2019, after what it called an extraordinary year.
The Bank of Ireland UK supports about 2.5 million customers and includes an established financial services partnership and foreign exchange joint venture with the UK Post Office.
It also has a long term partnership with the AA, which has been extended until 2028, as well as a UK mortgage business and a UK car, asset finance and leasing business, under the Northridge Finance and Marshall Leasing brands.