A painfully slow and expensive affair

Hi everyone

I thought I’d send you an update after a month in which I have been chasing down a number of Post Office and non-Post Office stories for various outlets. Here are some of the Post Office stories:

Operation Olympos

The police investigation into those who were responsible for sending innocent Subpostmasters to prison is currently costing more than £750,000 a month. It has spent more than £7m since it was established in January 2020. In that time it has interviewed a total of four people. Four. The investigation (led by ‘Gold’ Commander Stephen Clayman – pictured above) currently has 102 people working on it across various police forces and is looking at 50 suspects.

Once (if) the compensation debacle is sorted, we will head into the fourth phase of the scandal – the arrest and prosecution of the people responsible. That will take another five years at least, I am sure. You can read a full breakdown of the figures here.

RJC report

In July this year, when launching Volume 1 of his final report, the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry chair Sir Wyn Williams admitted Restorative Justice was “a concept with which I was unfamiliar” before he took on the Post Office inquiry. Thanks largely to the work of Howe and Co, the law firm representing the largest number of Subpostmasters at the Inquiry, that has changed.

In his Volume 1 report Sir Wyn required Fujitsu, the government and the Post Office to deliver a report “outlining any agreed programme of restorative justice and/or actions taken by that date to produce such a programme.”

The Post Office, the Department for Business and Trade and Fujitsu outsourced this work to the Restorative Justice Council (RJC) which, in September, set about interviewing as many Subpostmasters and their families as it could.

They released their first report on Friday – read my piece on it here.

A painfully slow and expensive affair, part 2

Although the press office will not officially confirm it, I have it on good authority there is no possible way Sir Wyn’s final report will be published before the end of the year. I’m currently now hearing February 2026 at the earliest, September 2026 at the latest.

This has all sorts of implications for the victims of the Post Office scandal and the ongoing police investigation. It will also mean that some of you might be wondering if you are ever going to see my book.

To that end, if you ordered a copy of The Great Post Office Cover-Up and you are thinking you’d like to have your money back in your pocket, Bath Publishing would be happy to facilitate a refund.

All you need to do is email them at info@bathpublishing.co.uk (or call them on 01225 577810) with your order number, or some idea of the email you used to order the book with. Or, if all else fails, your name. They can set in motion the process for issuing a full refund with apologies from us all.

Obviously if you have ordered a special limited-edition hardback and get a refund on that then that book will go back on sale to whoever wants to buy it. And please bear in mind once the paperback and hardback editions are on sale, they are likely to be priced higher than the current pre-sale price. But… if you want your cash back now, you are welcome to it and we are very sorry to have kept you waiting so long.

I still don’t think it’s worth publishing the book before the Inquiry reports, but we were just, perhaps, a little naïve in thinking it might be with us by now, or Christmas.

Colin Chesterton

Colin Chesterton was a lawyer who first contacted me in December 2021 on behalf of his single Subpostmaster client, Tony Hibberd. Tony joined the Horizon Shortfall Scheme in 2020. On the occasion of my last email from Colin in July this year, Tony had not agreed a final settlement. He and his wife are in their eighties.

Over four years of correspondence, Colin sent me 82 emails. Each was unfailingly polite and cheerful as he detailed the simply appalling runaround he was getting from the Post Office and HSS assessors as Colin tried to get Tony anything like the compensation he deserved.

Sometimes Colin had useful information, sometimes he wanted some help with something, sometimes he just wanted to privately vent. Colin worked for Tony pro bono because he wanted to help.

We only spoke a couple of times on the phone, but his emails were the mark of a determined and diligent lawyer doing everything he could to wade through the swamps of obfuscation and incompetence which stood between his client and just redress.

In June, Colin wrote to say “I have suddenly become dyslexic with both words and numbers. The docs thought I had had a stroke, but a CT scan says not and much to my surprise my brain is in pretty good shape. So, the answer is they don’t know, and it is what it is. That is going to make drafting the statements interesting (thank God for spell check) and reading I can pretty much get everything. If defeated, particularly with numbers, I use a magnifying glass!“

Late last week I was told Colin had passed away in August, still working hard at his job, whilst on kidney dialysis (which I knew nothing about) and suffering various other deteriorating health conditions. He was 74. In his last email to me Colin wished all the Subpostmasters well and revealed he had embarked on a series of new statements for the HSS scheme’s new Appeal process.

Colin wrote: “Adjudicators do not seem to understand that the humiliation and stigma that Subpostmasters suffered…. It was absolutely shattering emotionally as well as financially. I think I have under-egged my claim [REDACTED] but if they come up with that Tony will settle happy to try and put it behind him. I know the Great British taxpayer has had to step into the breach and are as horrified by Post Office conduct as much as anyone else, but they have taken on that responsibility.

“There are no mitigating circumstances in the Post Office conduct. The aggravating factors are that as the problems developed senior management were working to a plan (of which secrecy was a major part) that was in fact beneficial to the Post Office and themselves.

“The conduct was carried out with maximum cruelty. Tony was not prosecuted because his sister came up with the shortfall but if financial terms and humiliation it was horrible for both him and his wife. As is well understood the Post Office engaged in reprehensible delaying and cost tactics in Court. It was only the courage of the now Sir Alan Bates, his colleagues and legal team that exposed it all. I am currently preparing statements for Tony, his wife and sister. For me I am debating whether to do a statement or submission. I am so enmeshed and angry a submission might not sit well!!“

Colin appeared to be a genuinely lovely human being who worked for his client right to the bitter end. I was deeply upset to hear he had died and I just wanted to mention him. Another unsung hero in this scandal who is now no longer with us.

Look after yourselves and keep well.

Nick

I am (still) writing a new book about the Post Office scandal called The Great Post Office Cover-Up. You can put your money down now for a copy which will arrive after Sir Wyn Williams’ final report. Buying a pre-publication copy of the hardback (£15 + P&P) or paperback (£10 + P&P) will be cheaper than the post publication price, help support an independent publisher (by buying direct) and offer you the opportunity to join my secret email mailing list. For more info about the book, click here!