More than 500 village postmasters were 'wrongly hounded for stealing millions because an IT system was riddled with 29 bugs'

  • Sub-postmasters begin court action over being 'wrongly accused of stealing'
  • Some were even jailed - but it was claimed that system glitches were to blame
  • Bosses have always denied the Horizon computer system could be faulty 
  • But the High Court heard that the problem had actually affected 30 branches

By Sam Greenhill Chief Reporter For The Daily Mail

Published: | Updated:

Hundreds of village postmasters were wrongly accused of stealing because Post Office computers were riddled with 29 separate bugs, the High Court heard yesterday.

When millions went missing, sub-postmasters were jailed, made bankrupt and had their lives ruined – but glitches in the system were to blame, it was claimed.

As 557 former sub-postmasters began fresh court action, a judge was told that postal chiefs tried to hush up reports that the software was plagued by problems.

Bosses have always denied the computer system could be faulty, even though pillars of their communities like Mrs Misra, of West Byfleet, Surrey, were mystified by their terminals declaring shortfalls of tens of thousands of pounds [File photo]

Bosses have always denied the computer system could be faulty, even though pillars of their communities like Mrs Misra, of West Byfleet, Surrey, were mystified by their terminals declaring shortfalls of tens of thousands of pounds [File photo]

One sub-postmistress – Seema Misra, 43 – was jailed for theft when she was four months’ pregnant with her second son.

Overcome with shame, she considered suicide and her conviction means she is still struggling to find work more than eight years later. 

At her 2010 trial, the Post Office claimed that although one IT bug was known about, it only affected ‘one branch’ 600 miles away in Scotland.

But yesterday, the High Court heard that the problem in the Horizon computer system had actually affected 30 branches.

Now the Post Office could be forced to pay millions of pounds in compensation if it loses at the High Court. Yesterday was the opening day of the second of four linked cases into whether it cheated its own sub-postmasters. The hearings will last until next year [File photo]

Now the Post Office could be forced to pay millions of pounds in compensation if it loses at the High Court. Yesterday was the opening day of the second of four linked cases into whether it cheated its own sub-postmasters. The hearings will last until next year [File photo]

Patrick Green QC, for the sub-postmasters, said: ‘It has taken the process of this group litigation to establish that the Post Office has not been truthful.’ 

Bosses have always denied the computer system could be faulty, even though pillars of their communities like Mrs Misra, of West Byfleet, Surrey, were mystified by their terminals declaring shortfalls of tens of thousands of pounds.

Now the Post Office could be forced to pay millions of pounds in compensation if it loses at the High Court.

Yesterday was the opening day of the second of four linked cases into whether it cheated its own sub-postmasters. The hearings will last until next year.

Mr Green told the court that a computer expert commissioned by the claimants identified 29 separate bugs in Horizon, which records all over-the-counter transactions.

One, called the Dalmellington Bug, gave an innocent sub-postmistress a £24,000 hole in her accounts, the court heard.

Named after her village branch in Ayrshire, Scotland, it struck in October 2015 when she took delivery of a pouch from head office containing £8,000 in bank notes.

When she recorded receipt of the £8,000 in Horizon, the screen ‘froze’ when she pressed Enter so she pressed it again and again. Eventually the system wrongly recorded that she had accepted £32,000 cash. 

Hundreds of village postmasters were wrongly accused of stealing because Post Office computers were riddled with 29 separate bugs, the High Court heard yesterday [File photo]

Hundreds of village postmasters were wrongly accused of stealing because Post Office computers were riddled with 29 separate bugs, the High Court heard yesterday [File photo]

In 2016, the £24,000 discrepancy caused by the Dalmellington Bug was discussed internally by Post Office bosses, including Paula Vennells, chief executive at the time, the court was told.

But an ‘urgent review’ was mysteriously shelved and the bug was not disclosed when the Post Office responded just four weeks later to the claimants’ group legal action. ‘The Post Office had front and centre in its mind the existence of this bug,’ said Mr Green.

‘But that bug was not disclosed in the letter of response.’

I want justice for husband driven to an early grave

Widow Karen Wilson went to the High Court yesterday bearing a small box containing some of her husband Julian¿s ashes. The former sub-postmaster, 67 ¿ was named as a claimant in the case

Widow Karen Wilson went to the High Court yesterday bearing a small box containing some of her husband Julian’s ashes. The former sub-postmaster, 67 – was named as a claimant in the case

Widow Karen Wilson went to the High Court yesterday bearing a small box containing some of her husband Julian’s ashes to fulfil a promise to seek justice for him.

The former sub-postmaster, 67 – named as a claimant in the case – died three years ago from cancer as a convicted criminal despite fighting to restore his reputation for over a decade.

Mrs Wilson, 64, of Redditch, Worcestershire, said: ‘The doctor said all of this did contribute to his early death. I promised him, “You will have your day in court, your name will be cleared”.

‘Julian was a well-educated, meticulous, honest and fabulous man. He was a businessman and had run companies for 30 years.

‘I am an ex-policewoman and in 2002 we decided to settle down and buy the local post office and shop where I grew up. We paid £100,000 and went to work 5am to 8pm every day.

‘We had eight fantastic years. But then Horizon kept saying there was money “missing”.

‘No matter who Julian spoke to at the Post Office, nobody wanted to know. We started making up shortfalls from the shop takings.

‘But it grew to thousands. I sold every piece of jewellery we had, including my engagement ring, to make up the losses.

‘It broke his heart. In the end, they confiscated our house, the car, the business and they told Julian he could go to prison for six years for theft or plead guilty to £27,000 of false accounting.

‘He was sentenced to 300 hours’ community service. He was 56 and ended up with a gang of criminals cleaning a graveyard. Before that, he had never even got a parking ticket.’

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He added there was evidence of the Dalmellington Bug striking 112 times in five years but it was not noticed and fixed until 2016. 

Mr Green also accused the Post Office of telling ‘the public, the court and claimants’ that bosses could not remotely access and alter a branch’s accounts when this was ‘clearly untrue’.

Anthony de Garr Robinson QC, for the Post Office, said Horizon was ‘reliable’. He claimed the sub-postmasters had failed to show any clear-cut examples of bugs causing false shortfalls, ‘let alone bugs causing the shortfalls of £18.7million that they claim not to be responsible for’.

He added: ‘[Their] suspicion of Horizon is driven by the natural human scepticism to technology.

‘It is easy to blame the computer when something has gone wrong in a branch.’ 

The case continues.

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