Post Office Scandal

Reporting the Post Office Horizon IT Scandal

Post Office Scandal

Reporting the Post Office Horizon IT Scandal

  • Were some Subpostmaster discrepancies down to internal fraud?

    Nick Wallis

    11 comments

    9 min read

    Since the rollout of the Horizon IT system in 1999/2000, the Post Office has been unable to tell the difference between computer error and fraud. Whilst relentlessly pursuing innocent people, it potentially failed to spot the multiple ways public money could be leaking out of its network. In a podcast I hosted last year (Ep 34: Where Did All The Money Go?), Second Sight’s Ron Warmington and former Subpostmaster Mark Baker counted up at least 14 ways the Post Office, Subpostmasters and Fujitsu could lose cash. One area raised by Ron and Mark was internal fraud, either at Fujitsu, which…

    Read More…: Were some Subpostmaster discrepancies down to internal fraud?

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Post Office Paula in Pant Topper Showstopper

29 Comments

All photos copyright Richard Banks. Reproduced with permission (and thanks!) I suppose it was only a matter of time. Even so, the first Horizon IT Inquiry-themed post box topper to materialise in the UK is quite the talking point. The well-executed tableau appeared overnight last night. It immortalises a crucial…

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Ghost Storey

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Usually when thinking about how to write a summary of the day’s evidence, there are one or two moments or lines which have made an impression. I’m struggling to think of anything Susannah Storey said during today’s session worth reporting. I realise I’m not exactly selling what you’re about to…

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Asleep at the Neil

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Neil McCausland was a non-executive director (NED) at the Post Office. In fact, he was the Senior Independent Director (SID), responsible during board meetings for robust examination of the executive’s actions and responsible outside board meetings for doing his research, marshalling the opinions of the other NEDs and communicating them…

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Second Sight’s final report

12 Comments

Ron Warmington and Ian Henderson of Second Sight Earlier this year I published Second Sight’s Interim Report, which was first published on the Post Office website on 8 July 2013 and removed several years later. Second Sight’s far more critical final report, formally known as “Briefing Report – Part 2”,…

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The Wine Gums vs The Blob

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Margot James giving evidence remotely to the Inquiry today Putting together a list of Postal Affairs ministers a few years back I was reminded of a graffito written shortly after the 33 day papacy of John Paul I, which asked: “What lasts longer, a pope or a wine gum?” It…

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A Trip down Misery Lane: Surviving the Post Office on BBC1

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Will Mellor (l) and Lee Castleton Surviving the Post Office (co-produced and co-directed by Hayley Hassall, who has previously reported on the story) has something of the travelogue about it. Will Mellor, who played former Subpostmaster Lee Castleton in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office, presents. Mellor…

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Furious Swinson claimed Paula Vennells deceived her

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Jo Swinson During her evidence to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry former minister Jo Swinson today highlighted the mendacity of the Post Office and what she saw as the conniving “duplicitous” behaviour of her chief civil service advisor. It all centres on the first Clarke Advice, the legal document…

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Welcome

Hello and welcome to Post Office Scandal – a website dedicated to covering the multi-faceted, ongoing, Post Office Horizon IT scandal.

My name is Nick Wallis, I am a journalist and I am responsible for the content on this website. You can contact me here.

I have written a book called The Great Post Office Scandal, fronted a Radio 4 series, co-written a Private Eye special and been involved in three Panoramas as (variously) producer, presenter and consultant.

The predecessor to this website is Post Office Trial, which covered the Bates v Post Office High Court litigation and the subsequent hearings at the Court of Appeal.

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You can find below dates, locations, and links to ticket details for any live events I’m doing in the near future. If you’d like me to speak at, give a presentation to or host one of your events, please get in touch via the contact form on this website. September 2024 Wed 18 September – Radio Academy Festival – 9.40am – in conversation with Sima Kotecha at the Royal College of Physicians, Regent’s Park, London on 18th September. Tickets here. October 2024 Wed 9 October – IoD NI & AIB: Director Governance and Leadership Summit 2024, Merchant Hotel, Belfast. 12…

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Investigating the Post Office Scandal – the podcast

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35: Ep35 – Paul Scully MP, former Post Office minister – Investigating the Post Office Scandal

In which Nick interviews the former Post Office minister about his experience of taking office in the weeks after the Bates v Post Office settlement, overseeing the establishment of the Post Office Horizon Inquiry and the various compensation schemes.
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About

Hello, my name is Nick Wallis. I am a freelance journalist. This website is designed to be a hub for my activity reporting the Post Office Horizon Scandal. Most of the work I have done on this story is crowdfunded. The crowdfunding pays for the journalism on this website. Occasionally I get lucky and someone pays me to do a bit of broadcast or newspaper journalism, which I am always grateful for. I have presented, produced and consulted on three BBC Panoramas about the Post Office scandal. I have written about it for Private Eye (with the genius that is…

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Horizon Scandal Fund

The Horizon Scandal Fund is a registered charity, which exists to help people by disbursing small cash grants to those in need. The grants could be for access to legal advice, counselling, therapy, travel, social events, hardship alleviation and much more. For more details, visit the website here: https://www.horizonscandalfund.org/

Horizon Scandal Fund

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