Calls for police investigation after report shows Post Office knew about Horizon faults

Post Office court case

A politician has joined former sub postmasters in calling for the Post Office to face a police investigation after an investigation showed they knew of faults in its Horizon IT system.

Labour MP Kevan Jones has called for the Metropolitan Police to investigate specifically whether chiefs continued to blame sub postmasters even though by 2017 they were well aware of flaws in Fujitsu’s software, the BBC has reported.

Horizon was introduced in 1999 but faults in the system led to it reporting money was missing. This led to the Post Office prosecuting 736 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses between 2000 and 2014, with some being sent to prison.

While those who were wrongly convicted are set to be cleared after a public outcry, further action could be taken against the Post Office after the miscarriage of justice.

The Metropolitan Police has been investigating the Horizon scandal since 2020 but Mr Jones has said they “need to start looking at this” specific detail.

He added: “I do now think the police need to start looking at this. More will obviously come out at the public inquiry but there’s enough out there now to start looking.

“Unless people are brought before a court of law and asked what they knew and why they took such actions, then that won’t be justice.”

A spokesman told the BBC: “Well, we’ve got an inquiry going on – we’re not going to get into the specifics of the inquiry.”

The force told the Standard that it had nothing further to add.

Alan Bates led a court challenge on behalf of 555 sub postmasters in 2018 and 2019 which successfully proved that the Post Office had pursued wrongful convictions. The events were dramatised in the ITV series Mr Bates v The Post Office.

The Post Office went on to spend £100 million of public money in trying to defend itself.

The Post Office declined to comment when approached by the Standard.

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