'I'm deeply sorry': Former Post Office top lawyer Chris Aujard appears in Horizon scandal inquiry

Secret tapes obtained by ITV News previously revealed Chris Aujard was warned by independent investigators of 'wrongful and unsafe' guilty pleas. ITV News Investigations Editor Daniel Hewitt reports

Former Post Office General Counsel Chris Aujard has told the Post Office inquiry he is "deeply sorry" to the hundreds of sub-postmasters persecuted due to Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon system.

Speaking at the inquiry on Wednesday, Mr Aujard said he was responsible for managing a department of lawyers at the Post Office, but highlighted that the investigation into the Post Office's review into theft and fraud was already underway before he took on the role.

When asked if anybody in the legal team had told him about bugs, errors or defects in the Horizon IT software, Mr Aujard replied with "no, the opposite".

"I was told there were no defects apart from the ones mentioned in the report," he said.

When asked by the judge if he would have needed to know about any issues with the Horizon system, Mr Aujard said "yes, in circumstances that had a legal connection", but that he would have needed to turn to the IT and finance team.

"Are you saying you relied on external sources of legal advice?" the judge asked.

"Correct," Mr Aujard responded.

Investigations Editor Daniel Hewitt asked former Post Office General Counsel Chris Aujard ahead of his evidence at the Post Office Inquiry if he had anything to say to the sub-postmasters whose lives were destroyed by the Horizon scandal

ITV News obtained a secret recording of a meeting between Mr Aujard and Second Sight forensic accountants Ian Henderson and Ron Warmington in December 2013.

Over the last few weeks ITV News has broadcast secret recordings which show just how much people at the top of the Post Office knew about faults with its Horizon IT system - and how long ago. In one of them, its most senior former lawyer is told by independent investigators that the Post Office had pressured sub-postmasters into pleading guilty to crimes they didn't commit. He's also told that the Post Office has potentially misled the courts. Hundreds of innocent people were convicted.

It revealed that the Post Office’s most senior lawyer was warned by independent investigators more than a decade ago that it may have misled the courts and pressured sub-postmasters into “wrongful and unsafe” guilty pleas.

In the tapes obtained by ITV News, the Post Offices most senior former lawyer is told by independent investigators that it had pressured sub-postmasters into pleading guilty to crimes they did not commit. He is also told that the Post Office has potentially misled the courts.

The accountants, Mr Henderson and Mr Warmington, presented a damning assessment of the Post Office’s conduct in its investigations and prosecutions of sub-postmasters.

Hundreds of innocent people were convicted. They found they were denied the right to defend themselves and forced into “courtroom step deals” with little choice but to plead guilty.

Also facing questions during Wednesday's session is Susan Crichton, another former general counsel to the Post Office.

She described some of the lawyers in her team as having an "unhealthy view" of the sub-postmasters.

"I can comment on [the lawyers'] attitude, they had a rather unhealthy view of sub-postmasters ... It was encapsulated that this is public money, so we have to protect it, there wasn't a step in the process that said as a business, should we be doing this?"

Ms Crichton said she "can't recollect" having a conversation with the lawyers about bugs, errors and defects in the Horizon IT software, but she said she did find it unusual that she was excluded from board meetings.

The inquiry has now entered into the significant phases five and six, which will look at governance, redress and how the Post Office and others responded.

It opened earlier in April with the lead counsel describing the Post Office’s “sub-optimal” and “highly disruptive” disclosure failings.

Former chief executive Paula Vennells, who led the Post Office at the height of the scandal, will face the inquiry in late May.

Ms Vennells, who led Post Office Ltd between 2012 and 2019, has come under fire over why hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted for fraud and false accounting under her watch.

A law aimed at quashing the wrongful convictions of sub-postmasters caught up in the Horizon IT scandal is being introduced by the government in mid-March.

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