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Post Office Horizon scandal

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  • Hex
    Hex Posts: 1,888
    Some damning evidence yesterday.


    I watched the first session yesterday morning and the evidence given by Henderson was clear and unequivocal.  The knife was well and truly stuck into the PO hierarchy. 
  • Valley11
    Valley11 Posts: 11,986
    Two men with complete integrity. How rare these days but both should be applauded.
  • man_at_milletts
    man_at_milletts Posts: 5,620
    Valley11 said:
    Two men with complete integrity. How rare these days but both should be applauded.

    And had the foresight to record their phone calls.
  • Some damning evidence yesterday.


    The police must act on this and arrest Vennells and her despicable crew.

    But would the CPS then be conflicted about prosecuting if they have prosecuted Post Office managers with cases they may not have looked too closely at ?

    and would a Labour government with the ex-CPS  boss as PM feel they need to push the can down the road ?
  • man_at_milletts
    man_at_milletts Posts: 5,620
    Some damning evidence yesterday.


    The police must act on this and arrest Vennells and her despicable crew.

    But would the CPS then be conflicted about prosecuting if they have prosecuted Post Office managers with cases they may not have looked too closely at ?

    and would a Labour government with the ex-CPS  boss as PM feel they need to push the can down the road ?

    Who knows? We'll probably have to wait and see.
  • letthegoodtimesroll
    letthegoodtimesroll Posts: 10,622
    edited June 2024
    Some damning evidence yesterday.


    The police must act on this and arrest Vennells and her despicable crew.

    But would the CPS then be conflicted about prosecuting if they have prosecuted Post Office managers with cases they may not have looked too closely at ?

    and would a Labour government with the ex-CPS  boss as PM feel they need to push the can down the road ?

    Who knows? We'll probably have to wait and see.
    ‘Wait and see’ is probably what sums up the approach of both political parties throughout except if you are the outgoing Conservative PM with no chance of actually having to fulfill on the promise to pay compensation this side of an earlier than expected election which you set the date for…
  • IdleHans
    IdleHans Posts: 10,971
    Some damning evidence yesterday.


    The police must act on this and arrest Vennells and her despicable crew.

    But would the CPS then be conflicted about prosecuting if they have prosecuted Post Office managers with cases they may not have looked too closely at ?

    and would a Labour government with the ex-CPS  boss as PM feel they need to push the can down the road ?


    Weren't the prosecutions carried out by the Post Office rather than the CPS? 
  • randy andy
    randy andy Posts: 5,454
    Some damning evidence yesterday.


    The police must act on this and arrest Vennells and her despicable crew.

    But would the CPS then be conflicted about prosecuting if they have prosecuted Post Office managers with cases they may not have looked too closely at ?

    and would a Labour government with the ex-CPS  boss as PM feel they need to push the can down the road ?
    Weren't these originally private prosecutions, i.e. not involving the CPS? In which case the CPS may even be more inclined to get involved having been side-stepped originally.
  • Lincsaddick
    Lincsaddick Posts: 32,355
    the emphasis now must be to get compensation paid to those as yet not recompensed/received damages .. I believe the Post Office is still party to the pay out procedure, that (if so) is ridiculous
  • Some damning evidence yesterday.


    The police must act on this and arrest Vennells and her despicable crew.

    But would the CPS then be conflicted about prosecuting if they have prosecuted Post Office managers with cases they may not have looked too closely at ?

    and would a Labour government with the ex-CPS  boss as PM feel they need to push the can down the road ?
    Weren't these originally private prosecutions, i.e. not involving the CPS? In which case the CPS may even be more inclined to get involved having been side-stepped originally.
    38 carried out by the CPS is a figure that had been mentioned earlier this year
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  • randy andy
    randy andy Posts: 5,454
    Some damning evidence yesterday.


    The police must act on this and arrest Vennells and her despicable crew.

    But would the CPS then be conflicted about prosecuting if they have prosecuted Post Office managers with cases they may not have looked too closely at ?

    and would a Labour government with the ex-CPS  boss as PM feel they need to push the can down the road ?
    Weren't these originally private prosecutions, i.e. not involving the CPS? In which case the CPS may even be more inclined to get involved having been side-stepped originally.
    38 carried out by the CPS is a figure that had been mentioned earlier this year
    Out of how many?
  • Kap10
    Kap10 Posts: 15,572
    Its the best drama on TV:
    I watch far too much of it but I just love to see the prevarication of Vennels and Co and the ways they try to shift the blame.

    Despite hating knighthoods I can understand Alan Bates accepting his as it will give more leverage to the struggle to get the many Thousands of wronged Post office Staff their money back and compensation.

    This protecting the brand is as old as time and earning millions for Vennels and a few other CEO's during the last 20+ years.
    He had turned down humours before on the basis that he would only accept when Vennels returned hers. He said when offered this time he accepted for the sub postmaster.
  • Some damning evidence yesterday.


    The police must act on this and arrest Vennells and her despicable crew.

    But would the CPS then be conflicted about prosecuting if they have prosecuted Post Office managers with cases they may not have looked too closely at ?

    and would a Labour government with the ex-CPS  boss as PM feel they need to push the can down the road ?
    Weren't these originally private prosecutions, i.e. not involving the CPS? In which case the CPS may even be more inclined to get involved having been side-stepped originally.
    38 carried out by the CPS is a figure that had been mentioned earlier this year
    Out of how many?
    Considerably more than that but that’s not really the point. The post Office did about 700 themselves I read somewhere but it seems common belief that those were probably suspect. On the other hand, however, it would be reasonable to believe that every single one of the CPS ones would have only have gone ahead after a lot of investigation and fact checking so the question should be why didn’t they pick up on what was really happening ? 

  • NornIrishAddick
    NornIrishAddick Posts: 9,623
    Some damning evidence yesterday.


    The police must act on this and arrest Vennells and her despicable crew.

    But would the CPS then be conflicted about prosecuting if they have prosecuted Post Office managers with cases they may not have looked too closely at ?

    and would a Labour government with the ex-CPS  boss as PM feel they need to push the can down the road ?
    Weren't these originally private prosecutions, i.e. not involving the CPS? In which case the CPS may even be more inclined to get involved having been side-stepped originally.
    38 carried out by the CPS is a figure that had been mentioned earlier this year
    Out of how many?
    Considerably more than that but that’s not really the point. The post Office did about 700 themselves I read somewhere but it seems common belief that those were probably suspect. On the other hand, however, it would be reasonable to believe that every single one of the CPS ones would have only have gone ahead after a lot of investigation and fact checking so the question should be why didn’t they pick up on what was really happening ? 

    Because the CPS looks at the "evidence" presented and also look at precedent, to determine whether to take the case on.  They make decisions purely on whether they look likely to win or not.

    Sadly, the Post Office's hiding of evidence that would have been likely to undermine a prosecution meant that they took decisions based on inaccurate information.

    They don't investigate the case, and don't have anyone in house with that kind of expertise. Their role is to present the case provided to them persuasively to get a prosecution.

    I very much doubt that, until the scandal really became public, the vast majority in the CPS had the slightest reason to believe that they were anything other than in the right.
  • clive
    clive Posts: 19,463

    The Post Office has launched an urgent investigation after it accidentally published the names and addresses of 555 postmasters prosecuted during the Horizon scandal.

    The company confirmed staff had shared personal details in a document on its website and said it had referred itself to data watchdog the Information Commissioner’s Office.

    One former sub-postmaster tweeted that the breach had caused "a great amount of upset, distress and anger" among colleagues.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd110nl7dppo

  • stonemuse
    stonemuse Posts: 34,006
    clive said:

    The Post Office has launched an urgent investigation after it accidentally published the names and addresses of 555 postmasters prosecuted during the Horizon scandal.

    The company confirmed staff had shared personal details in a document on its website and said it had referred itself to data watchdog the Information Commissioner’s Office.

    One former sub-postmaster tweeted that the breach had caused "a great amount of upset, distress and anger" among colleagues.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd110nl7dppo

    Unbelievable! 
  • NornIrishAddick
    NornIrishAddick Posts: 9,623
    stonemuse said:
    clive said:

    The Post Office has launched an urgent investigation after it accidentally published the names and addresses of 555 postmasters prosecuted during the Horizon scandal.

    The company confirmed staff had shared personal details in a document on its website and said it had referred itself to data watchdog the Information Commissioner’s Office.

    One former sub-postmaster tweeted that the breach had caused "a great amount of upset, distress and anger" among colleagues.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd110nl7dppo

    Unbelievable! 
    Believable, I'm afraid.

    If the ICO doesn't issue a significant fine, it'll be in real difficulties, it's such a high profile data breach (the profile making it natural to query the accidental nature of the disclosure) that any other outcome is unthinkable.
  • stonemuse said:
    clive said:

    The Post Office has launched an urgent investigation after it accidentally published the names and addresses of 555 postmasters prosecuted during the Horizon scandal.

    The company confirmed staff had shared personal details in a document on its website and said it had referred itself to data watchdog the Information Commissioner’s Office.

    One former sub-postmaster tweeted that the breach had caused "a great amount of upset, distress and anger" among colleagues.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd110nl7dppo

    Unbelievable! 
    Believable, I'm afraid.

    If the ICO doesn't issue a significant fine, it'll be in real difficulties, it's such a high profile data breach (the profile making it natural to query the accidental nature of the disclosure) that any other outcome is unthinkable.
    They can add that ‘significant fine’ to the sum the government is going to have to come up with for the compensation for the wrongly convicted sub post masters etc
  • clive
    clive Posts: 19,463

    Horizon is robust, says ex-boss of postmasters' union

    The Post Office's Horizon system is "very robust" and the only scandal is that the company failed to properly defend it, according to a man tasked with representing sub-postmasters.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyxxz799vxko

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  • NornIrishAddick
    NornIrishAddick Posts: 9,623
    clive said:

    Horizon is robust, says ex-boss of postmasters' union

    The Post Office's Horizon system is "very robust" and the only scandal is that the company failed to properly defend it, according to a man tasked with representing sub-postmasters.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyxxz799vxko

    A position reported to have been funded by the employer since 2016, hardly the norm for a representative of the workers...
  • ME14addick
    ME14addick Posts: 9,762
    clive said:

    Horizon is robust, says ex-boss of postmasters' union

    The Post Office's Horizon system is "very robust" and the only scandal is that the company failed to properly defend it, according to a man tasked with representing sub-postmasters.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyxxz799vxko

    A position reported to have been funded by the employer since 2016, hardly the norm for a representative of the workers...

    Everything about the way the Post Office operated is so wrong.
  • Covered End
    Covered End Posts: 52,008
    clive said:

    Horizon is robust, says ex-boss of postmasters' union

    The Post Office's Horizon system is "very robust" and the only scandal is that the company failed to properly defend it, according to a man tasked with representing sub-postmasters.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyxxz799vxko

    A position reported to have been funded by the employer since 2016, hardly the norm for a representative of the workers...

    Everything about the way the Post Office operated is so wrong.
    The queues were apalling.
  • Kap10
    Kap10 Posts: 15,572
    Today was awesome viewing.
  • Dippenhall
    Dippenhall Posts: 3,919
    Postmasters have always been nicking cash and there’s nothing wrong with Horizon - the Inquiry is all fake news. A Post Office man through and through.
  • Rob7Lee
    Rob7Lee Posts: 9,596
    Todays union rep was unbelievable, and people bang on about joining a union, he's as guilty as the rest of them.
  • soapboxsam
    soapboxsam Posts: 23,229
    Rob7Lee said:
    Todays union rep was unbelievable, and people bang on about joining a union, he's as guilty as the rest of them.

    The Amazing thing is that George Thompson wasn't just a local Rep he was the leader of the National federation of Sub post-Masters !
    Thompson was the fat Scottish Turkey voting for Xmas.
    Keir Hardie is spinning in his grave listening to George Thompson defend the scandal.

    Supreme work by the counsel to the Inquiry, Julien Blake when he accused Thompson of "being in bed with Paula Vennels"
  • Rob7Lee said:
    Today’s union rep was unbelievable, and people bang on about joining a union, he's as guilty as the rest of them.
    If only there had been a union then to challenge the coincidences of so many having shortfalls in their books and being prosecuted by their employer….
  • ME14addick
    ME14addick Posts: 9,762
    Rob7Lee said:
    Todays union rep was unbelievable, and people bang on about joining a union, he's as guilty as the rest of them.
    This wasn't a normal Trade Union though, that is the whole point. It was set up by the Post Office.