The Post Office Horizon scandal led to 13 suicides and wrongful prosecutions of around 1000 people. Photo / Getty Images
The Post Office Horizon scandal drove 13 people to suicide, an inquiry has found.
Sir Wyn Williams, the chairman of the public inquiry, said that “according to their families” 13 people took their own lives, while a further 59 had contemplated suicide and 10 had attempted it.
The Post Office scandal saw sub-postmasters across the UK wrongfully prosecuted after Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon software incorrectly recorded shortfalls on their accounts between 1999 and 2015.
In a 162-page report, published at the Oval in south London on Tuesday, Williams said “it seems likely that approximately 1000” people were prosecuted and convicted “based on Horizon evidence” during the 16-year period.
He said Post Office bosses knew Fujitsu’s Horizon software was faulty but had “maintained the fiction” that a version of it “was always, always accurate”.
Williams also said “wholly unacceptable behaviour” had been perpetrated by “a number of individuals employed by and/or associated with the Post Office and Fujitsu” and the institutions themselves “from time to time”.
Since the inquiry began hearing evidence in February 2022, many witness accounts have suggested certain senior and junior Post Office personnel had knowledge of bugs, errors and defects in the Horizon system.
However, Tuesday’s report marked a landmark moment because it was the first time the chairman of the inquiry had said this was the case.
While Williams cannot determine criminal actions, a criminal investigation is already being conducted in parallel to the inquiry. Last month, the Metropolitan Police said it was investigating more than 45 individuals, with seven formally identified as main suspects.
Recommendations put forward by his report included compensating the family members of Horizon victims, Government-funded legal advice and a restorative justice programme to be set up by the Government, Fujitsu and the Post Office.
The Post Office Horizon IT inquiry, which heard from 298 witnesses and examined close to 2.3 million pages of documents, retired in December.
Witnesses questioned by inquiry counsels included Paula Vennells, the former Post Office chief executive, and Sir Alan Bates, the campaigner whose fight for justice was portrayed in an ITV drama last year.
The report outlines the scale of suffering was even greater than previously realised.
Named in the report were two victims of the Post Office scandal who had taken their own lives as a result of the bogus prosecutions: Martin Griffiths and Michael Mann.
Griffiths took his own life in 2013 at the age of 59 after being falsely accused of stealing £100,000 ($226,674) from his branch in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.
During the inquiry, it was heard that the Post Office sought to “hush up” the case of Mr Griffiths, a father of two, by “drip-feeding” compensation payments of £140,000 ($317,343.60) to his widow, Gina, getting her to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and lining up a media lawyer to protect its reputation.
Griffiths’ sister has blamed the Post Office, saying that officials have “blood on their hands”.
A letter from the sub-postmaster’s daughter was also presented as evidence in which she said she “solely” blamed the Post Office for her father’s death.
Michael Mann, a former Post Office manager, also took his own life after being interviewed by the company’s internal investigators on suspicion of fraud in 2013.
At least 59 people told the inquiry they had contemplated suicide at various points, of whom 10 attempted to take their own lives.
While it is not known if they are among the 13 people who took their own lives that Williams referred to, with all but two of the suicides being anonymous, there have been multiple reports of others.
In July 2020, police discovered the body of Peter Huxham, a Devon-based postmaster. He died alone after serving an eight-month prison sentence over a £16,000 ($36,263.52) shortfall. His 22-year marriage had reportedly disintegrated owing to his ordeal and left him struggling with alcoholism and mental health issues.
Jayakanthan Sivasubramaniam, a father of two, also took his own life hours after Post Office investigators raided his branch, alleging that £179,000 ($405,698.13) was missing from the cash machine and safe.
“My poor husband was not given the chance to prove his side, and took his own life,” Gowri, his wife, told the Times. The Post Office has refused to pay her under the flagship compensation scheme despite admitting that the audit resulted in his suicide.
In 2012, Louise Mann, the wife of a postmaster in Moretonhampstead, Devon, took her own life, reportedly over the shame of being labelled a thief. Charles, her husband, reportedly did not receive any compensation. The father of one said: “I lost my job. Then I lost my wife.”
Tuesday’s report primarily focused on the human impact of the scandal, but in his introduction, Williams addressed whether he believed Post Office and Fujitsu bosses had been ignorant of the glitches in the software system at the time of the prosecutions.
He wrote of how, before the rollout of the software, some Fujitsu employees had “discovered” that a version – Legacy Horizon – was capable of producing data that was false, and specifically “losses or gains” on branch accounts that were “illusory rather than real”.
He wrote: “Although many of the individuals who gave evidence before me were very reluctant to accept it, I am satisfied from the evidence that I have heard that a number of senior and not so senior employees of the Post Office knew or – at the very least should have known – that Legacy Horizon was capable of error as described above.
“Yet, for all practical purposes, throughout the lifetime of Legacy Horizon, the Post Office maintained the fiction that its data was always accurate.”
Williams included a footnote in which he said he would “summarise and explain the evidence which justifies this statement” in a later part of his report.
In 2010, Legacy Horizon was replaced by another version of the software, frequently known as Horizon Online. However, the vast majority of prosecutions against sub-postmasters within the impacted period were carried out before 2010.
Williams detailed how this version was also afflicted by “bugs, errors and defects”, which “had the effect of showing gains and losses in branch and Crown Office accounts”.
Addressing knowledge around problems with this version, he wrote: “I am satisfied that a number of employees of Fujitsu and the Post Office knew that this was so.”
In another part of the document, he wrote: “As later volumes of my report will demonstrate, all of these people [impacted postmasters] are properly regarded to be regarded as victims of wholly unacceptable behaviour perpetrated by a number of individuals employed by and/or associated with the Post Office and Fujitsu from time to time and by the Post Office and Fujitsu as institutions.”
In a footnote, he wrote that he had chosen to use the phrase “wholly unacceptable behaviour” since it was “apt to describe behaviour which is worthy of condemnation” but did not “necessarily mean that persons or the Post Office committed crimes”.
A large part of Williams’ report also addressed the four compensation schemes set up to redress victims, for which he identified “around 10,000 claimants”.
However, while more than £1 billion ($2.2b) has been paid out so far, many victims are still waiting for their payouts and those with larger claims have repeatedly gone back to demand what they feel they deserve.
One recommendation Williams gave was that the Government and the Post Office should agree on a definition of “full and fair” compensation, and this should be followed when deciding the level of compensation to offer.
Bates has repeatedly turned down his offers, which he says have been a fraction of what he has claimed.
Williams wrote: “I am persuaded that in the difficult and substantial claims, on too many occasions, the Post Office and its advisors have adopted an unnecessarily adversarial attitude towards making initial offers which have had the effect of depressing the level at which settlements have been achieved.”
After reading the report, victims called for police to follow through with prosecutions.
Seema Misra, now 50, was eight weeks pregnant with her second child when she was handed a 15-month sentence in 2010 for six counts of false accounting and one of theft.
Misra, who had run a post office in West Byfleet, Surrey, for fewer than three years when her accounts were found to have a £74,600 ($169,078.66) shortfall, told the Telegraph: “It is painful reading it for us all [victims] because it just brings back all the hard times that we all went through.
“We always knew that the Post Office knew there were faults, but now, the whole world knows.”
She added: “I definitely want to see the police prosecute and convict these people [who are responsible].
“This scandal is going to stay with us for the rest of our lives. We can’t just erase the memory of it. But it should haunt the people who were part of it.”
Meanwhile, Tracy Felstead was in her first job as a counter clerk in a Crown Office in Camberwell Green, when she was investigated over an alleged shortfall of £11,503.28 ($26,071.84).
She attempted to take her own life on two occasions, of which one attempt resulted in her being admitted to a secure psychiatric unit.
Despite contesting one charge of stealing and two of false accounting, Felstead was convicted and sentenced to a period of six months – which was meant to be served at a young offender institution.
However, Felstead was sent to HMP Holloway – a prison for adult women.
The 42-year-old was one of 17 case studies referenced in the report. Williams said he had “no difficulty in accepting – that [Tracy’s] experiences at Holloway Prison will live with her forever”.
Felstead told the Telegraph: “I was really emotional, I think seeing it in black and white there – his opinion on what happened to me, that really kind of hit home with me and made me very very emotional.”
Janet Skinner, 54, who was handed a nine-month sentence in 2007 over an alleged shortfall of £59,000 ($133,737.66) from her branch in Bransholme, Hull, was more sceptical.
Skinner and Felstead are yet to receive compensation payouts, despite having their convictions overturned.
She said: “There’s a lot of recommendations and I think we’ve had such a large number of recommendations throughout this inquiry, throughout the compensation process, but nothing’s been actioned – and I would have liked to see a little bit more punching.”
A Post Office spokesman said: “The inquiry has brought to life the devastating stories of those impacted by the Horizon scandal.
“Their experiences represent a shameful period in our history. Today, we apologise unreservedly for the suffering which the Post Office caused to postmasters and their loved ones. We will carefully consider the report and its recommendations.”
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