• Three Day Book Tour!

    The Great Post Office Scandal had next to no advertising, marketing or launch budget. Bath Publishing are a tiny (but delightful and committed) publisher. TGPOS is their first mainstream book. They don’t have the sort of relationships that could see them wander into the Waterstones’ chief buyer’s office and tell them about their next hit publication. They can’t swing reviews as favours. Going out on the road and physically telling people about the book is therefore essential. It is something we can do. Bath Publishing and I have now worked with some wonderful folk in Wanstead, Manchester, Derby, Bath, Farncombe…

    Read More…: Three Day Book Tour!
  • 73 Convictions Quashed

    This week the 73rd Subpostmaster conviction was quashed. Margaret White (née Sowinska), ran the Banbury Road Post Office in Oxford. In 2007, she pleaded guilty to two counts of false accounting after Post Office “auditors” found a £28,000 discrepancy at her branch. That conviction was quashed at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday. The Oxford Mail has a write-up, here. Of the two other cases heard the same day, one was adjourned, the other was opposed and a judgment will be made in due course. According to information I have been given, of the 706 convictions Post Office convictions which…

    Read More…: 73 Convictions Quashed
  • Treasury Announces Compensation for 555 Civil Litigants

    After all the hints, it’s finally happened. On Tuesday 22 March 2022, a full two years and three months after the settlement of Bates v Post Office, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that all 555 claimants in that case will be properly compensated for their losses. Two years and two months ago, Alan Bates invoiced the government for the sum of £46m – representing the figure taken from the £57.75m High Court settlement to cover legal fees and the litigation funders’ success fee. He was told to go away. He did not. Bates, along with his fellow litigants and…

    Read More…: Treasury Announces Compensation for 555 Civil Litigants
  • Tim Brentnall’s Closing Statement

    Tim Brentnall ran the Roch Post Office in Pembrokeshire. He was convicted of false accounting in 2010. His conviction was quashed at the Court of Appeal on 19 July 2021. Tim gave evidence to the Post Office Horizon Inquiry on 1 March 2022. Tim’s closing statement is a powerful piece of rhetoric aimed at reminding the inquiry chair Sir Wyn Williams that he should not be investigating the IT, but the people who used it to systematically deny hundreds of people their reputations, livelihoods and mental well-being. Following Tim’s lead I have clipped out the relevant section of video from…

    Read More…: Tim Brentnall’s Closing Statement
  • Chirag Sidhpura’s Closing Statement

    I watched Chirag Sidhpura give evidence today. You can read about his story here, and in the live-tweets I put together whilst he was talking. At the end Chirag read out a prepared statement, which he has kindly shared with me (whilst also showing me how to work my new phone). Chirag is an extraordinarily determined person, and the journey he has been on is unique, but it started in the same place: Post Office auditors finding a discrepancy at his branch and Post Office investigators threatening him with criminal prosecution unless he made it good. Do read Chirag’s story…

    Read More…: Chirag Sidhpura’s Closing Statement
  • Horizon Remote Access 2016-style

    Sue Edgar is Chair of the National Federation of Subpostmasters and a serving Subpostmaster. Her story is fascinating. The evidence she gave to the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry on the afternoon of Fri 4 March will undoubtedly be seen as significant for a number of reasons, but I would like to focus on what she said about remote access to Subpostmaster branch accounts. By 2016, the Subpostmasters’ campaign for justice was well known to the Post Office and the National Federation of Subpostmasters. Remote access to the Horizon IT system was a live issue. In order to maintain confidence…

    Read More…: Horizon Remote Access 2016-style
  • “She didn’t even have the guts”

    For obvious reasons I have spent many hours dealing with sacked and convicted Subpostmasters, rather than those still working. The evidence given to the Post Office Inquiry has come from both serving and former Postmasters. I am currently watching the focus group session on the afternoon of Fri 4 March – particularly because of some social media interest in what the Chair of the National Federation of Subpostmasters, Sue Edgar, told the inquiry about remote access to Horizon, the Post Office’s disastrous IT system. I haven’t got to the relevant bit yet, but before I do, I thought it was…

    Read More…: “She didn’t even have the guts”
  • “Good news” for the 555 “in the next few days”

    This scandal has been characterised by many things, but one of the most striking is the absolute relentless determination of backbench MPs and peers to hold the government to account. To my mind, it is a racing certainty that without consistent pressure from parliamentarians of all stripes, the government would not have made available £1bn in compensation to wronged Subpostmasters outside the High Court litigation settlement, nor would we have a statutory inquiry. That is not to belittle for one moment the excellent work done by campaigners, lawyers and other professional people who care about what happened or who were…

    Read More…: “Good news” for the 555 “in the next few days”
  • “They never want the truth to come out.”

    Malcolm Simpson was a Subpostmaster at Boxgrove Post Office near Chichester, West Sussex. Malcolm came to the inquiry on 24 Feb with his wife Lesley (pictured above). Malcolm and Lesley bought Boxgrove village shop in 2003. It had a Post Office counter which was run completely separately by the incumbent Subpostmaster. The Subpostmaster left in 2007 and although he was reluctant to do so, Malcolm said it was the “logical step” for him to take over. After inadequate off-site group training (during which Malcolm said none of the trainees could balance correctly) he was let loose on Horizon in his…

    Read More…: “They never want the truth to come out.”
  • Numbers Matter

    The number of people affected by the Horizon scandal is a question news editors used to ask me and journalists used to ask themselves when trying to get some kind of handle on scale of this story. This was in the bad old days when the Post Office refused to give out information and no one else had a record of it. Alan Bates from the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance always had a perceptive view of the likely scale. In our very first conversation in 2010 he told me the number of people affected could be “the high hundreds, possibly…

    Read More…: Numbers Matter

Archives

  • 2024
  • 2023
  • 2022
  • 2021


Subscribe For Latest Blog Updates

Tags

Alan Bates alice perkins Alwen Lyons Andrew Winn Andy Dunks Andy Parsons angela van den bogerd Bates v Post Office BBC Bonusgate CCRC Chris Aujard Clarke Advice False Accounts Fujitsu Gareth Jenkins Grabiner HCAB Horizon Hugh Flemington Inquiry Interim Report Janet Skinner Jarnail Singh Kevin Hollinrake Lee Castleton Lord Arbuthnot Mark Davies Nicki Arch Nick Read Noel Thomas Paula Vennells Paul Marshall Post Office Rob Wilson Rod Ismay Rodric Williams Second Sight Seema Misra ShEx Simon Clarke Susan Crichton Tom Cooper Tracy Felstead UKGI

Categories