Archives :
2024
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Vennells Day 1: the Five Things we learned
Right then. Not volunteering more than she had to The fact that despite protesting several times she approached the inquiry with “integrity” in a spirit of wanting to tell the “complete truth” Paula Vennells appeared to be attempting a sleight of hand from the off. Jason Beer KC (who asked questions on behalf of the…
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The Post Office’s “caring” side
The other story to come out of today’s evidence (21 May 2024) took us away from inability of Alwen Lyons to see herself as anything other than a helpful facilitator of Post Office business and Second Sight’s investigation into the Post Office business. It concerns a couple of emails sent by Post Office Head of…
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Feeding them to the Lyons
The mystifying thing about a lot of witnesses we’ve been hearing from recently is that Second Sight, the independent investigators tasked in 2012 to really dig into what was going on at the Post Office, were somehow not good enough at their jobs. The Post Office’s definition of not being very good at a job…
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All-knowing Alwen has her chance to come clean
It’s all too easy to get the measure of Alwen Lyons OBE. She sees herself as a Good Person who spent a lifetime serving and defending a Good Company. Unfortunately that company was the Post Office. Lyons was there during the prosecution spree, she was there at the height of the cover-up, and seems to…
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Former Post Office General Counsel Refuses to Cooperate with Inquiry
On Wed 8 May, I mentioned (in parentheses) during my live-tweets of Brian Altman KC’s evidence: “This provokes a conference in BA’s chambers and a letter from the new GC Jane McLoed (who I understand might be resisting the request she give evidence to the inquiry and given she lives abroad, cannot be compelled to…
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Ismay: the Idiot Returns
Rod Ismay’s role in the Post Office was senior – he finished as Head of Product and Branch Accounting reporting directly to the Chief Finance Officer. He appears to have taken a leading, or as Jason Beer KC would have it “co-ordinating” role in responding to Horizon challenges throughout his career at the Post Office.…
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The One Thing Brian Altman Did Wrong
Brian Altman’s role in perpetuating the Post Office scandal is self-evident. He gave advice which helped a bent client keep a lid on a gargantuan miscarriage of justice. Whether that was down to any professional failings was in issue today. Altman had sight of clear evidence of criminal activity (orders to shred documents, misleading a…
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Belinda Cortes-Martin (Crowe): Sir Humphrey would be proud
Belinda Cortes-Martin had a dual role. Whilst she was supposedly heading up the Post Office’s Complaint and Mediation Scheme’s Working Group secretariat, supporting and answering to the Working Group’s independent Chair, Sir Anthony Hooper (a retired Court of Appeal judge), Cortes-Martin was also Programme Director for Project Sparrow, the top secret Post Office body set…
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Keeping their knees on Seema’s neck
Today we got some insight into the catastrophic and frankly sinister failings of a group of lawyers at the heart of the Post Office scandal. The lengths Brian Altman (then) QC et al went to to avoid their post-conviction disclosure duties to former Subpostmaster Seema Misra (who was sent to prison whilst eight weeks pregnant)…
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Martin Smith and the Instruction to Shred
The mystery of who at the Post Office (or Bond Dickinson) decided to shred minutes relating to an important meeting at the Post Office to discuss problems with the Horizon IT system got a little more dramatic today as Martin Smith, a solicitor working for Cartwright King, gave evidence. Smith was a prosecuting solicitor who…