Archives :
Prosecutions
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Independent board demands quashing of ‘Capture Convictions’
UPDATE: A government spokesperson has today [25 October 2024] issued the following statement in response to the HCAB’s letter: “The Post Office Offences Act 2024 was a truly exceptional response to unprecedented circumstances where hundreds of convictions based on evidence from the Horizon system were considered to be unsafe. “The Criminal Cases Review Commission is…
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Ben Foat: On His Terms
What a difference a bit of time off makes. The last time Ben Foat was questioned by the Inquiry, he looked like a rabbit in the headlights, nervously surveying the mess he’d made of the Post Office’s disclosure responsibilities. Today Foat gave evidence from a remote location, having declined to turn up in person, due…
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It’s Mike’s World. We just live in it.
It seems like we’ve got the Post Office scandal all wrong. The moment in 2012 the Post Office caved and finally agreed to get independent investigators Second Sight into the building was nothing to do with the campaign by MPs and Alan Bates’ Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance. It was, in fact, all down to the…
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Ghost Storey
Usually when thinking about how to write a summary of the day’s evidence, there are one or two moments or lines which have made an impression. I’m struggling to think of anything Susannah Storey said during today’s session worth reporting. I realise I’m not exactly selling what you’re about to read, but it did feel…
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Asleep at the Neil
Neil McCausland was a non-executive director (NED) at the Post Office. In fact, he was the Senior Independent Director (SID), responsible during board meetings for robust examination of the executive’s actions and responsible outside board meetings for doing his research, marshalling the opinions of the other NEDs and communicating them to the Chair and executive…
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Pat’s Proof Points (and other McFadden Mantras)
Former Post Office minister (2007 – 2010) Pat McFadden didn’t have to say much to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, but he did have to say something. Being a campaign-hardened and experienced politician, he had no qualms about saying very little lots of times. McFadden was asked (in a number of ways) why he…
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Comical Ken and Captain Kelly
Ken McCall was brought into the Post Office in 2016 as a non-executive director (NED) because the Post Office chairman Tim Parker thought he would be a “good fit”. We were told this was because of McCall’s experience running a delivery business (TNT) in China and being responsible for EuropCar and its IT function in…
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Andy Dunks’ Big Problem
Fujitsu’s Andy Dunks has a problem. He signed dozens, possibly hundreds of witness statements attesting to the integrity of the Horizon IT system without, it seems, taking the relevant amount of care to see if the information he put in his witness statements was true. These witness statements were used in the successful prosecutions of…
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Poor Tom
Tom Cooper was pitched into the Post Office madness quite late in the scandal. He joined UK Government Investments in 2017, and became UKGI’s man on the Post Office board in March 2018 whilst it was already embroiled in litigation with with its Subpostmasters and careering towards the first of two disastrous High Court trials.…
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Robert Swannell – Culture, Curiosity and Risk
Robert Swannell is a former accountant and barrister with more than thirty years experience as an investment banker and director of large companies (including six years as chair of Marks and Spencer). He is therefore a big deal. Big deals rarely feel they get things wrong. Swannell had two articles of faith – the first…