Archives :
2020
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The Great Post Office Trial begins on Monday
The Great Post Office Trial Hello there On Monday at 1.45pm a ten part series called The Great Post Office Trial begins on Radio 4. I have heard the first three episodes, which have now been delivered to the BBC. The first features Jo Hamilton, the second is about Alan Bates and the third highlights…
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The Great Post Office Trial on BBC Radio 4 starts a week today
The countdown begins Hello secret email contingent Work has been continuing apace to finish the ten-part documentary I am making with Whistledown Productions for BBC Radio 4. It is a landmark series (Whistledown only do landmark series) and I hope it has some effect. If you’re not already an avid Radio 4 listener, now is…
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A mixed bag of goodies
Hello secret email friends I hope you are all keeping well. There is a lot to tell you. First – the Radio 4 series I have been going on about for a while has got a listing on the BBC website. Yes I know the magic disappearing Panorama got a listing on the BBC website…
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Settlements, solicitors and schemes
Hello! I hope you are keeping well. I had a frankly horrible week last week working 12 – 14 hour days trying to do several complicated things. As you may know from reading my tweets, the inspirational teacher of my son’s primary school was defenestrated by his employers last year on the back of what…
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Chirag’s story
Hello friends Chirag Sidphura (pictured above) is going to become an interesting player in the Post Office story. He suffered a £57,000 discrepancy at his Farncombe branch in 2017 – after the closing date for applications to the High Court group litigation. He was sacked but not prosecuted. Rather than walk away Chirag has continued…
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Holy Moly. 500 criminal convictions under review.
Hats off to the Daily Mail who appear to have got one of the biggest scoops of this extraordinary story so far. The Post Office has set up a review of “around” 500 of its successful prosecutions OUTSIDE those already lodged with the Criminal Cases Review Commisision. 500! That is criminalisation on industrial scale. The…
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Request: were you questioned by the Post Office’s investigations unit?
Help request – investigations interviews Hello secret emailers This particular missive is only going to be of interest to certain respondents, so if you weren’t ever a Postmaster or Post Office employee, you can stop reading here and enjoy the rest of your Easter weekend. I am after some information for a series I’m working…
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Fire up the lawyers
Hello secret emailers Since December quite a few people have approached me asking for advice. Asking a journalist for advice is usually a terrible idea, but I do sympathise with the predicament many people find themselves in. My respondents broadly fall into three categories: a) those who have just heard about the group litigation and…
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Van den Bogerd rides again
Morning secret emailers! I hope you are well. Our next door neighbour has lost his sense of smell. This is a symptom of Covid-19 so he is going into isolation to see if those symptoms develop further. They have also run out of washing up liquid, so yesterday I went and put some on his…
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Private Eye special report on the Post Office OUT TODAY
Private Eye special report out today! Hi all Just to let you know the Private Eye special report into the Post Office is out today. I wrote it with Eye staffer Richard Brooks who has done some great work on this story over the years. It was he who first suggested a special and got…