After TV show stirs outrage, Britain tries to rectify scandal that ruined hundreds of lives
LONDON — After a TV docudrama revived public outrage, the British government said Wednesday that it intends to reverse the convictions of hundreds of postal workers wrongly accused of theft or fraud because of a faulty computer system, in what is considered one of the gravest injustices in the nation’s history.
The announcement Wednesday by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak followed broadcast of “Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office,†which created a huge surge of public support for the former postmasters who have spent years trying to reclaim lives ruined by the scandal.
“This is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history,†Sunak told Parliament. “People who worked hard to serve their communities had their lives and their reputations destroyed through absolutely no fault of their own. The victims must get justice and compensation.â€
Lawmakers said they would provide compensation to those who had been convicted. Some also called for bringing to justice those responsible for pursuing cases against Post Office branch managers even after learning of the computer errors.
Some things to know about the scandal:
What happened?
After the Post Office rolled out the Horizon IT system, developed by Japanese company Fujitsu, in 1999 to automate sales accounting, local Post Office managers began finding unexplained losses they were on the hook to cover.
Thousands of doctors walked off their jobs in Britain for a six-day strike set to be the longest in the state-funded National Health Service’s history.
The state-owned Post Office insisted that Horizon was reliable and accused branch managers of dishonesty. Between 2000 and 2014, some 900 postal workers were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting, with some convicted and imprisoned and others forced into bankruptcy.
In total, more than 2,000 people were affected by the scandal. Some died by suicide or attempted it. Others said their marriages fell apart and reported becoming community pariahs.
A group of postal workers took legal action against the Post Office in 2016. Three years later, the High Court in London ruled that Horizon contained a number of “bugs, errors and defects†and that the Post Office “knew there were serious issues about the reliability†of the system.
“Failures of investigation and disclosure were so egregious as to make the prosecution of any of the ‘Horizon cases’ an affront to the conscience of the court,†Justice Timothy Holroyde said.
To date, just 95 convictions have been overturned, said Kevin Hollinrake, the government minister who oversees the postal system.
Why now?
The government had said that the moment of reckoning was long in coming. But it was turbo-charged by a four-part TV docudrama that began airing on New Year’s Day and that led to days of bruising headlines about the scandal. The public outrage sparked a swift response by lawmakers.
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The ITV show, “Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office,†told the story of Alan Bates, played by Toby Jones, a branch manager who has spent nearly two decades trying to expose the scandal and exonerate his peers.
Despite hundreds of news stories over the years about court hearings and an ongoing public inquiry, the show, watched by millions, rapidly galvanized support for victims of the injustice.
Police last week opened a fraud investigation into potential offenses of perjury and perverting the course of justice over investigations and prosecutions pursued by the Post Office.
More than a million people signed an online petition calling for former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells to lose her honorary title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire, which she received in 2018. By the end of Tuesday, she said she would relinquish the honor.
Who was affected?
The Post Office is state-owned, with independent franchise operators. Branch owners and employees typically lived in the communities where they operated, and many became outcasts when accused of stealing from their neighbors.
Lisa Brennan, a former clerk at a post office in Huyton, near Liverpool, told the inquiry that, after being falsely accused of stealing about $3,800 in 2003, her marriage fell apart, she lost her house and she ended up homeless with a young daughter.
“It’s scandalous — it should never have happened,†she told the inquiry in 2022. “I wasn’t the only one, but that’s what I was told: ‘It’s only you; you’re the only one.’â€
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Janine Powell, a former sub-postmaster in Tiverton, in the county of Devon, was accused of stealing around $90,000. Powell said she felt broken after being sentenced to 18 months in prison following her conviction in 2008.
She had to leave her three children, aged 10 to 18 at the time, which strained her relationship with them. She harmed herself, considered suicide and struggled to get a job after her release.
“It had a big impact. You have to declare, obviously, that you’ve got a criminal record,†Powell said. “When you try to explain [to employers], it’s a ‘no’ straightaway, so I couldn’t work.â€
What compensation could they receive?
The government plans to set aside $1.27 billion to compensate the wrongly convicted and others whose lives were destroyed in the scandal.
To date, about $190 million has been paid to more than 2,500 victims, Sunak said.
The legislation being drafted would quash convictions and award those who have been cleared at least $763,000, the government said. They could receive more if they go through a claims-evaluation process.
Those who were not convicted but lost money would be offered at least $95,000.
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The government said there was a chance that some postal employees who did commit fraud or theft could end up being exonerated and receive compensation.
“The risk is that instead of unjust convictions, we shall end up with unjust acquittals and we just do not know how many,†Hollinrake said. “But we cannot make the provision of compensation subject to a detailed examination of guilt.â€
Is anyone being held accountable?
Some members of Parliament called for bringing charges against those who had been aware of the software problems yet allowed prosecutions to go forward.
“Will the government accelerate the investigations to convict those who are really guilty of causing this scandal by perverting the course of justice?†said David Davis, a Conservative member of the House of Commons.
Hollinrake said the ongoing public inquiry would identify the organizations and individuals responsible for the scandal.
Duncan Baker, a Conservative who had once run a postal branch in Norfolk, said he wanted to know how much money the Post Office pocketed.
“One question that has never been answered is just how much money was taken unlawfully from thousands of innocent men and women,†Baker said. “The Post Office took that money. We have never known that figure.â€
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