Ex-Post Office manager apologises for celebrating after sub-postmistress jailed
David Smith told the Horizon IT inquiry he acknowledged the “substantial distress” he had caused, ITV News' Rachel Younger reports
A former managing director of the Post Office has said he understands the “anger and upset caused” after appearing to celebrate the conviction of a pregnant sub-postmistress who was eventually jailed.
David Smith told the Horizon IT inquiry he acknowledged the “substantial distress” he had caused after telling the Post Office staff the result of Seema Misra’s trial was “brilliant news”.
Mrs Misra began running a Post Office in West Byfleet, Surrey, in 2005, but was suspended in 2008 after being accused of stealing £74,000.
She was handed a 15-month prison sentence on her son’s 10th birthday in November 2010 and was eight weeks’ pregnant when jailed.
Mrs Misra’s conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal in 2021.
Following her conviction and sentence, Mr Smith sent an email to managers, including Paula Vennells, asking to “pass on my thanks” to the legal team.
His email read: “Brilliant news. Well done. Please pass on my thanks to the team.”
In his witness statement to the inquiry, Mr Smith said his comment of “brilliant news” was due to the fact he believed “Horizon had been proved to be robust” following Mrs Misra’s trial.
He said: “It was intended to be a congratulatory email to the team, knowing that they had worked hard on the case.
“However, knowing what I do now, it is evident that my email would have caused Seema Misra and her family substantial distress to read, and I would like to apologise for that.
“My comment of ‘brilliant news’ was in relation to me thinking that it was brilliant news that, in my mind, Horizon had been proved to be robust following the testing of the expert evidence in the trial.
“Even if this had been a correct conviction, I would absolutely never think that it was ‘brilliant news’ for a pregnant woman to go to prison and I am hugely apologetic that my email can be read as such.
“Regardless of the result, I would have thanked the team for their work on the case.
“However, seeing this email in the light of what I know now, I understand the anger and the upset that it will have caused and sincerely apologise for that.”
As the Horizon inquiry continues, ITV News has exclusively obtained secret recordings providing crucial evidence of the Post Office's awareness of faults in the system.
Through a mini-series, tapes of meetings dating between 2013-2015 revealed independent investigators sharing their concerns with the organisation.
One recording of a meeting attended by former Post Office boss Paula Vennells in July 2013, show she was told by independent investigators from Second Sight about potential problems with Horizon, as well as allegations that branch accounts could be accessed remotely by staff at Fujitsu HQ in Bracknell.
She was also warned by Second Sight's Ian Henderson and Ron Warmington that the company’s position on denying any problems was potentially “dangerous” and “stupid”.
In another recording obtained exclusively by ITV News from December 2013, Post Office General Counsel Chris Aujard - the organisation’s most senior lawyer at the time - is told by the same independent investigators of evidence suggesting “unsafe” and “wrongful” convictions of sub-postmasters, who were pressured into guilty pleas and denied potentially crucial evidence to defend themselves.
In a third recording from August 2014, senior Post Office executives are heard refusing to hand over potentially key documents to investigators relating to remote access at Fujistu.
Previously, Ms Vennells said in a statement to ITV News: “I continue to support and focus on co-operating with the Inquiry and expect to be giving evidence in the coming months.
“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.
“I now intend to continue to focus on assisting the Inquiry and will not make any further public comment until it has concluded."
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