Post Office accused sub-postmasters of taking cash 'lying around' instead of accepting IT faults
Former Conservative MP Lord Arbuthnot accused the Post Office of 'stringing along MPs' in a 'behind-the-scenes deception' to protect the company, ITV News Correspondent Geraint Vincent reports
Senior Post Office officials claimed sub-postmasters were led "into temptation" by "lots of cash lying around" instead of accepting there were faults with the Horizon IT system, the official inquiry has heard.
Giving evidence on Wednesday, former Conservative MP Lord Arbuthnot accused the Post Office of “stringing MPs along” in a “behind-the-scenes deception process” to cover up issues with the Horizon system and protect the company’s “existence”.
Lord Arbuthnot, former MP for North East Hampshire who helped sub-postmasters' campaign for justice, told the inquiry an independent forensic investigator told him Post Office staff "knew there were a large number of bugs in the system they hadn't told MPs about".
Following the airing of ITV drama, Mr Bates Mr Bates vs The Post Office - in which Lord Arbuthnot features - the organisation has been under the spotlight for the scandal which is now recognised as one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in UK legal history.
More than 700 sub-postmasters were prosecuted - with some jailed - by the government-owned organisation and handed criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015 as Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon system made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.
Hundreds of sub-postmasters are awaiting compensation despite the government announcing that those who have had convictions quashed are eligible for £600,000 payouts.
Lord Arbuthnot described how he was "not satisfied" with the "brush off" he received from then-CEO Paula Vennells to his letter raising concerns about complaints from sub-postmasters about the Fujitsu's faulty Horizon system.
The inquiry also heard how Ms Vennells, who was chief executive of the Post Office between 2012 and 2019, suggested “temptation” for sub-postmasters to borrow money from tills was a problem and not the Horizon system.
Minutes recorded of what Ms Vennells said during a meeting with MPs, including Lord Arbuthnot, in May 2012 read: “It appears that some sub-postmasters have been borrowing money from the Post Office account/till in the same way they might do in a retail business, but this is not how the Post Office works.
“Post Office cash is public money and the Post Office must recover it if any goes missing."
Ms Vennells is recorded in the document emphasising the importance of trust in the Post Office brand and the need for “trustworthy” staff.
On Tuesday, Ms Vennells was accused of misleading the government after ITV News obtained a letter from March 2015, which shows she claimed there was no evidence sub-postmasters had been wrongfully convicted.
This was despite the Post Office being told in 2014 by the law firm it had itself hired to review prosecutions that it found problems in at least 26 cases.
A Post Office spokesperson said: “We are deeply sorry for the hurt and suffering caused to victims and their loved ones and remain fully focused on getting to the truth of what happened and supporting the statutory Public Inquiry, which commenced Phases 5 and 6 of evidence gathering today, to achieve this.”
Elsewhere in his evidence, Lord Arbuthnot said an independent forensic investigator told him Post Office staff “probably fear it will be career death” if they conceded failings with the Horizon system.
The inquiry was shown an email from Second Sight employee Ron Warmington to Lord Arbuthnot from June 2013, in which he said the Post Office was “incredibly defensive” and nobody was “ready to give an inch”.
Lord Arbuthnot told Ms Vennells, to halt prosecutions while Second Sight investigated the Horizon system, the inquiry heard.
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Speaking about the organisation’s position following an investigation by Second Sight, Lord Arbuthnot told the probe on Wednesday: “They knew there was a large number of bugs in the system that they hadn’t told MPs about.
“They were operating some sort of behind-the-scenes deception process which suggests to me now that they were stringing MPs along in order to preserve the robustness of Horizon, the existence of Horizon and possibly the existence of the Post Office.
“That’s what I know now, but I didn’t know that then.”
The inquiry was shown Mr Warmington’s email to Lord Arbuthnot, in which he said those responding to his questions were crafting responses in a way that would “appear to many… as to avoid actually giving any answers”.
The inquiry was also shown minutes of a telephone call between Lord Arbuthnot and Ms Vennells from May 2013, in which the former Conservative MP raised concerns about prosecutions continuing despite an independent review being conducted by Second Sight.
The minutes read: “The JFSA (Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance) raised a concern with James (Arbuthnot) that the Post Office is continuing with prosecutions despite the review taking place, predicated on the view that there is ‘nothing wrong with Horizon’.
“(Lord Arbuthnot) does not think we should be prosecuting on that basis (I think because Second Sight have made noises about finding something).
“(Paula Vennells) promised she would go back to James on this point.
“(Lord Arbuthnot) said we should not go ahead until we can prove there is no remote access to the system or branch terminal which can change the subpostmaster’s account.”
Last month, ITV News exclusively revealed a secret recording of a meeting in 2013 attended by Ms Vennells in which she was made aware of allegations that sub-postmaster branch accounts could be accessed remotely.
This is something the Post Office had denied for years as hundreds of sub-postmasters were convicted.
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