What is UK Post Office Scandal? How did a TV show bring it back into spotlight?

A hit TV show has spotlighted a scandal that ruined the lives of hundreds of people in Britain and rallied the public to call for justice. Dubbed by many including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as ‘the most widespread miscarriage of justice’ in British history, it left postal workers imprisoned, in dire financial straits, resulted in their marriages falling apart and some even killing themselves. Sunak has vowed to bring in legislation to overturn the wrongful convictions. But what is the UK Post Office Scandal? How did a TV show bring it to light? What happened? First, let’s take a look at UK post offices. Managers at Post Office branches across Britain, called sub-postmasters are often at the heart of their communities. These are trusted individuals who handle people’s savings and pensions. In the late 1990s, a new software began being rolled out across Post office Branches in the UK.

The software, called Horizon, was faulty.

It incorrectly showed shortfalls in the accounts of individual branches. According to Al Jazeera, some employees even tried to make up for the shortfall with their own money. Time Magazine reported that the post office employees said they alerted the higher-ups with the software problems from the start but their warnings went unheeded. Between 1999 and 2015, the UK post office brought charges against 700 sub-postmasters and mistresses as per BBC. The Post Office for years claimed the Horizon computer accounting system was reliable. It continued to accuse sub-postmasters of theft. [caption id=“attachment_13586622” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has vowed to bring in legislation to overturn the wrongful convictions.[/caption] Meanwhile, sub-postmasters either found their Post Office contracts terminated, were left bankrupt or jailed after being found guilty of stealing money. Then, in 2009, trade publication Computer Weekly reported the claims of flaws with Horizon, alongside the postmaster prosecutions. Amid mounting pressure from the media and lawmakers, the Post Office began to investigate the issue. However, in 2015, its boss Paula Vennells told a parliamentary committee that there had been no evidence of any miscarriage of justice. Legal action, high court ruling In 2016 a group of affected postal workers joined a group legal action against the Post Office that was key in uncovering the scandal. The High Court in 2019 ruled that Horizon contained a number of “bugs, errors and defects” and that it was likely that those defects caused the shortfalls in the branch accounts. In late 2019, the Post Office finally agreed to settle claims made by 555 sub-postmasters. However, many of the victims found the amount paid in compensation was outweighed by legal fees. The government says roughly £138 million has so far been paid out to over 2,700 claimants across three separate Post Office compensation schemes. As per Time Magazine, the government in September said it would increase its compensation to £600,000 per victim. Regardless, many postmasters are yet to receive compensation or have their convictions quashed. Of the more than 900 postal branch managers who were convicted of theft or fraud between 1999 and 2015, just 95 have managed to overturn their convictions, Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake said. As per Al Jazeera, 39 of those convictions were voided in a single ruling by the UK Court of Appeal in 2021. Some were sent to prison, and many were financially ruined after being forced to pay large sums to the state-owned Post Office. Several killed themselves. In total, over 2,000 people were affected by the scandal. As per Al Jazeera, southeast London postmaster was among them. Kalia was wrongly accused of embezzling over £20,000 and given a six-month jail term.

His conviction was only voided in 2021.

Seema Misra was eight weeks pregnant when handed a 15-month prison term in 2010. Misra was blamed for a shortfall of £74,000. “I’d been warned there was a chance I could be jailed,” Misra was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera. “But I honestly just couldn’t see for a second how I could be punished like that for something I hadn’t done. I had faith in the justice system, at that point. When the judge said I’d been sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment, I passed out. If I hadn’t been pregnant, I would have taken my own life. I was at rock bottom.” Time Magazine quoted the Criminal Cases Review Commission as saying the scandal was the “most widespread miscarriage of justice the CCRC has ever seen and represents the biggest single series of wrongful convictions in British legal history.” How did a TV show bring it to light? While the scandal has continued for years, it recently returned to the spotlight after a hit ITV docudrama. The TV show entitled “Mr. Bates vs the Post Office” tracked a two-decade battle by branch manager Alan Bates, played by Toby Jones, to expose the truth and clear the wronged postal workers.

It aired from 1 to 4 January.

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BBC quoted the ITV show’s producer Patrick Spence as saying, “Drama can go inside the homes of the sub-postmasters who so suffered and dramatise the pain that they went through. “[It] can do something that a documentary and a newspaper article can’t… they can bring to life the true emotional impact on the people who were victimised by the Post Office’s abhorrent behaviour.” Neil Hudgell, a lawyer for some claimants as saying at least 50 new potential victims have emerged since it aired. [caption id=“attachment_13603672” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The TV show Mr. Bates vs The Post office aired from 1 to 4 January. Image courtesy: ITV.com[/caption] The show, watched by millions of people, helped to refocus political attention on the victims’ battle for justice. Lee Castleton, a former sub-postmaster told the BBC the scandal ruined his life and that he and his loved ones were “ostracised” in their village. “People abused us in the street for being thieves and my children were bullied,” he said. Bates, upon whose life the drama is based, said Sunak’s announcement was “another positive step forward”. However, he added that “the devil is in the detail, and we’ve yet to see that”. What happens next? Officials said Wednesday that the hundreds of postal workers who joined that legal action will be offered an upfront payment of £75,000 each.

Those whose convictions are overturned will be entitled to a £600,000 compensation payment, officials added.

Sunak announced that he will introduce measures to overturn the convictions of more than 900 post office branch managers who were wrongly accused of theft or fraud because of a faulty computer system. Under the plan, sub-postmasters will be able to sign a document to have their convictions reversed and claim compensation. Sunak said the scandal, which saw hundreds of postmasters falsely convicted of stealing money because Post Office computers wrongly showed that funds were missing from their shops, was “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history.” Sunak told lawmakers that a new law will be introduced to ensure that those wrongly convicted are “swiftly exonerated and compensated.” “People who worked hard to serve their communities had their lives and their reputations destroyed through absolutely no fault of their own,” he said. “We will make sure that the truth comes to light, we right the wrongs of the past and the victims get the justice they deserve.” Sunak’s office acknowledged that the blanket quashing of convictions was unusual, but argued that it was justified because of the “exceptional situation.” But some legal experts have warned that the unprecedented step of legislating to quash convictions meant that politicians were meddling in the independent judicial process, potentially risking similar interference in the future on other issues. The normal process for anyone to have their conviction overturned in Britain is for the convicted party to lodge an appeal. Meanwhile, an independent public inquiry has been ongoing since 2022. That inquiry led by a former high court judge is gathering evidence from postal workers, the government, the Post Office, Fujitsu and others. It is expected to conclude later this year. Last week police said they opened a fraud investigation into the Post Office, saying officers are looking into potential offenses of perjury and perverting the course of justice over investigations and prosecutions carried out by the Post Office. While business executives and former ministers are under scrutiny, no one up the chain of command has faced consequences yet. On Tuesday, ex-Post Office chief executive Vennells said she would relinquish the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire that she received in 2018. “I am truly sorry for the devastation caused to the sub-postmasters and their families, whose lives were torn apart by being wrongly accused and wrongly prosecuted as a result of the Horizon system,” Vennells was quoted as saying in a statement by Time Magazine. An online petition calling for her to be stripped of the honor had garnered more than 1.2 million supporters. Vennells, who received more than £4.5 million in salary and bonuses during her seven-year tenure, stepped down in 2019 before the Post Office agreed to pay $58 million in a settlement with 555 sub-postmasters. In 2021 she resigned from the boards of two retailers after 39 sub-postmasters had their criminal convictions overturned, saying her past at the Post Office had become a distraction. Former postal affairs minister Ed Davey has also come under the spotlight. The now-leader of the small Liberal Democrats party refused to meet sub-postmaster Alan Bates in May 2010, saying in a letter that it would not serve any useful purpose. Davey, who later met Bates but did not intervene in any of the cases, said he was “clearly misled” by Post Office executives. Fujitsu, which has continued to win multiple British government contracts, says it is “fully committed” to supporting an ongoing independent public inquiry.

It says it has apologised for its role in the scandal.

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As per BBC, the company has been given over £6.5bn in public contracts since 2013. As per Al Jazeera, the Horizon software continues to be used in UK post offices to this day.