Post Office Scandal: Has The Post Office Had A Change of Heart?

It has been described as one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British legal history.

It involves one of the most-loved British institutions, the Post Office.

And it involves hard-working local sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses being wrongly convicted of crimes that they did not commit.

One of those was Wells sub-postmistress Gail Ward. As reported by Rebecca Cook of SomersetLive, Gail was one of thirty-nine workers whose convictions were recently overturned at the Court of Appeal. She was the sub-postmistress of the former Post Office on Priory Road in Wells, Somerset.

Now, the Post Office appears to have had a change of heart, claiming that it wants to help those very same people to be cleared!  

Yet for the entire time of this sorry saga, it was the Post Office that were involved in bringing the criminal convictions forward in the first place.

Repeatedly, the Post Office told each sub-postmaster that they were the only ones in trouble for the apparent loss of monies. 

They singled out and bullied workers to confess to crimes that they did not commit, as stated by Gail Ward in her interview with Rebecca Cook. Instead, it was flaws in the Post Office's dodgy "Horizon" IT system.

So do you believe the Post Office now, that they have had a change of heart? Tell us by commenting below, or contact us via email, Facebook or Twitter.

The victims might feel that it is a bit late now, and that the Post Office are now trying to limit the compensation claims that will come next. They have previously claimed that they will not be able to afford the compensation.

We asked Gail Ward directly what she thought of this latest news. Gail told us:

"I think all those that were wrongly convicted like myself should have their convictions quashed immediately. We need a full judge led public inquiry so that all the people within Post Office & government who knew what was going on and let innocent people be prosecuted should all have to answer for their involvement and then be held to account.

For all the persecuted sub postmasters, we all should be substantially compensated for losses and lives ruined."

We could not agree more. Yet it seems that Boris Johnson's Government don't want the inquiry that Gail and her fellow victims want. There have been the usual words used by those who wish to cover up failings:

"Lessons should and will be learnt to ensure this never happens again", said the Prime Minister, as reported in the Evening Standard. How many times have we heard these insincere words on Southern Health, Hillsborough, Grenfell Tower - the list is much longer, sadly much longer?

The inquiry that sub-postmasters have called for is not certain to go ahead. Critics have claimed that the type of inquiry that Johnson has proposed will not be able to "summon witnesses or cross-examine them".

We also asked Gail whether she agreed that "this is a ploy by the PO to try to head off the compensation claims?"

She told us:

"Yes probably. Nothing would surprise me with their underhand tactics. Also I think the government and the civil service will do anything to prevent a full inquiry as they are afraid of where it will lead. Once again thank you."

Andrew Pope of Somerset Independents says:

Andrew Pope, Leader of Somerset Independents

 "I agree with Gail completely and told her that when we spoke. 

There are so many vested interests looking to cover their backsides - Labour, Lib Dem and Tory MPs and civil servants too. 

This saga spans successive governments - Labour then Lib Dem/Tory Coalition then Tory - and it is in the public interest that they are held responsible. A full judge-led public inquiry will take a long time but the truth must be exposed.

There must not be a whitewash. The whole long-winded saga is shameful, but the Post Office and these politicians have no shame.

The providers of the Horizon system, Fujitsu, must also be held to account. I know from working in large IT companies, that some have severe failings and shoddy practises that put profit first and profit ahead of people.

Why didn't they fix the bugs that were reported?

Computer Weekly should be praised for bringing the truth out in the first place in 2009, and the organisers of this campaign for justice are heroes. Journalists that investigate and report on scandals like this should also be praised. They are brave. And they are right to be belligerent in the face of intimidation by the Post Office.

But they should not have had to be heroes. It should have never happened at all.

Somerset Independents will do what we can to help all Somerset Post Office staff who were affected, to get justice."

 

Standing Up for Somerset People