The curse of Angela van den Bogerd

Hello again

My thanks to a number of people who have drawn my attention to extraordinary developments at the Welsh FA. Jonathan Ford, the organisation’s high-flying chief executive has suffered a humiliating vote of no confidence and has been placed on gardening leave whilst his future is deliberated. Why? Well, it appears part of the reason is because he hired Angela van den Bogerd, the Post Office director who tried to mislead a High Court judge during the Bates v Post Office litigation.

This literally never happens. What makes it all the more remarkable is that sources close the FAW council were prepared to confirm (off-the-record, of course) that this indeed was one of the reasons Mr Ford was given such a drubbing. Read all about it on the BBC website, Wales Online and, of course, in Computer Weekly.

We know the Post Office has done over a significant number of Postmasters in Wales. I wonder if some of them were personally known to some of the council members at the FAW. I suspect there’s a lot more of this to come out.

Accountability

Whilst I have no opinion on Ms van den Bogerd’s toxicity, it is interesting that the only people currently suffering any consequences for their alleged actions are few and far between.

There are two Fujitsu engineers under criminal investigation, Paula Vennells has lost her government and NHS job, and now Ms van den Bogerd is in the middle of exactly the sort of scenario you could imagine she might have thought she would be able to avoid when she left the Post Office in the middle of last year.

Of course nothing any Post Office exec or Fujitsu engineer has suffered compares to what their organisations put hundreds of Postmasters through, and still, no one has been held accountable.

Bleak Horizon

There’s been an interesting response to the Computer Weekly article which went up last week featuring an interview with another Horizon whistleblower. It prompted a more than a couple of people to start wondering who knew what, when, about this slow-motion IT disaster. I’ve documented two new leads on my blog.

More and more people are coming forward who might be able to help me piece together exactly how Horizon was inflicted on unsuspecting Postmasters, but I’m not there yet.

Incidentally, the mighty Karl Flinders at Computer Weekly has written up an interesting series of interventions by the legal firm Howe and Co. In my last newsletter I told you they were going to do some lobbying on behalf of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance and they’ve started already – writing to the Prime Minister asking him to halt the Williams inquiry and fit it with some teeth.

Karl reports that Howe and Co have also written on behalf of the JFSA to the Met Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions, asking for a meeting with both to discuss the Post Office and Fujitsu’s role in the criminal prosecutions of Subpostmasters. It’s a great piece – do have a read.

Crowdfunder looming

Whilst a lot of people have been exceptionally generous towards my work over the last couple of years, I haven’t launched a formal crowdfunding campaign since August 2018.

In fact I have repeatedly asked those who might be tempted to donate more than once to wait until I really do need your help. Despite this, everyone I’ve spoken to seems to gleefully ignore me and donate anyway.

Whether you are a one-time donor or a repeat offender I am deeply grateful for your sustained patronage. It has been the privilege of my life to do this job, and without you, there is no way I would have been able to keep up this output.

But…. (there’s always, eventually, a but…)

On Friday I will be launching a crowdfunder in the hope I can document every forthcoming twist and turn of what is happening at the Court of Appeal and the Williams inquiry. I’ll definitely be at the Court of Appeal, COVID-willing, but it would be nice to have a few quid in the coffers so that I don’t have to do it at a loss. And tomorrow (Thursday), when I could have been watching the second focus group being run by the Williams inquiry, I am off to Kent for 5 News, because I’ve got to earn a living.

On Friday, that changes. I will be announcing a new project which will once more see me entirely focused on all things Post Office. You don’t have to be a genius to guess what it is, but rest assured that if you are able to part with a certain amount of money you will end up with something more to show for it than a warm glow, secret email membership, occasional frantic live-tweeting and some blog posts. Ooh – what could it be?! All will soon be revealed.

Right, that’s it. Be good. Get your jab. Wash your hands, wear a mask ect ect…

Actually, speaking of jabs, one of my senior relatives proudly announced to the family that she had received the “Fizzer” vaccine. As we gently corrected her, it did strike me she had hit upon a much better name than boring old Pfizer. It conjoures up interesting marketing campaigns:

“Fizzer Drugs! Safe and Fun!”

It’s probably a good job I never went into medicine.

All best,

Nick