The Horizons Sub-Postmaster Scandal

Described as the largest miscarriages of justice in the UK, the Horizons Sub-Postmaster Scandal is one of the most intriguing occurrences of failure of technology in recent times yeilding cataclysmic results on the lives of hundreds. The story goes back to 1999, when Post Office Limited introduced the Horizons computer system developed by the Japanese MNC Fujitsu for tasks like transactions, accounting and stocktaking. Since it's inauguration two decades back, several sub-postmasters complained of bugs in the whole system that led to discrepancies in accounting and reported shortfalls amounting to thousands of pounds. The situation was so desperate that sometimes postmasters had to pour in their own money to reimburse the shortfalls in counting these huge ammounts of money and had to even remortgage their homes as a result.

A Campaign organised by the Support Our Sub-postmasters Association. Many of the wrongly convicted came under these umbrella associations for seeking justice. 

Over 800 sub-postmasters, a sizable number of who are Indian settlers had to face criminal convictions of fraud, flawed accounting or theft and spells of imprisonment at a result. Marriages broke down and families got separated and the "convicts' became victims of addiction and psychological problems. Some of them faced the tragic fate of premature deaths. Many of them pleaded guilty on being advised by their individual attorneys when they were unable to meet the costs of carrying on the legal battle. Several of them who were in their young ages were unable to find employment after their jail term owing to the prevalence of the vicious CRB History in the UK. 

The Indian origin Seema Misra was one of those who was sent to prison for 15 months at a time when she was pregnant for alleged fraud. 

Subpostmaster Harjinder Butoy (seated right), is another Indian origin victim who was jailed for 3 years and 4 months and claimed that the case had destroyed his life for 14 years and nothing was to change.

The case had a turning point in 2019 when Post Office Limited agreed to settle with 555 claimants and agreed to pay £58 million in damages which finally came around to £12 million after the legal costs were met. For this the Post Office Limited had asked to government to step into funding this meaningful compensation as the Enterprise was financially incapable of meeting the expenses. A few days later, a High Court ruled that Horizon was not "remotely robust" for the first ten years of its use and continues to be flawed till this date. This particular ruling had a remarkable impact as large number of cases were brought by the Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance to the independent Criminal Cases Review Commision which looks into matter of miscarriage of justice in the UK. It had refered 51 cases. Initially 6 verdicts were overturned and on 23rd April 2021, the Royal Court of Justice overturned 39 of 42 cases. The CCRC is set to refer 22 more cases while many others remain pending to be considered.

23rd April witnessed a heartwarming yet heartaching scene outside London's Royal Court of Justice. Many broke down- some in relieved smiles and some in tears after finally getting acquitted. Tom Hedges (67) opened a bottle of Prosecco to commemorate the landmark judgement.

The scene outside the courts of Appeal on April 23rd was one of simultaneous melancholy and cheer. Whilst many of those whose cases were quashed wept tears of joy, a large number demanded far more stringent punishment whose lapses caused catastrophic effects on their personal lives. They demanded that Paula Vennells, the former chief executive of the enterprise to be stripped off her CBE for her services to the postal service and repay bonuses of more than £2.2 million she received as part of her £4.5 million earnings during her seven-year tenure. The Communication Workers Union and Members of Parliament on both sides of the aisle have harped upon the need to investigate all those top officials who had ruined the lives of innocent people  in their pursuit for profits. The British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has welcomed the verdict sympathising with those who faced these pernicious prosecutions in the last decade. A government enquiry into the whole matter is supposed to occur in Autumn. 

Many of those against whom false charges had been framed has insisted former Chief Executive Paula Vennells to be stripped of her CBE which she was awarded in 2019 and to seize a lion's share of her bonus that she had received as a part of her long 7 year tenure. 

This episode remains an example to all those bankers in India who had to plug in huge ammounts of money during Demonetization and have still not been repaid. However this proves that the British Judicial System is to some extent broken as it's Indian counterpart since both take ages to acquit innocent convicts ensuring the ruination of their lives in the meantime. Both of them seem to be as inefficient as the Horizons computer system and the Post Office Limited against whom a series of lower middle class wage earners waged a battle and won.




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