Archives :
Civil litigation
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Andrew Winn: the Over-promoted Postie
I first became fascinated by the Post Office’s willingness to place loyalty and length of service over ability in 2018 at the Bates v Post Office litigation at the High Court. During the litigation’s first trial, a succession of Post Office witnesses took the stand. Some were sharp, some were the dimmest of dim bulbs,…
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Post Office v Castleton – a second category Abuse of Process?
An extraordinary piece of evidence has been raised at the Post Office Horizon Inquiry. It came during the day long car crash which was Andrew Winn’s testimony. Winn was a hopelessly over-promoted former postie who eventually fetched up reporting to the Post Office’s Head of Product and Branch Accounting, Rod Ismay (author of the infamous…
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Inquiry re-start preview
Part 2 of Phase 3 of the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry gets underway today. There will be three more weeks of evidence before another break until May, punctuated by another compensation hearing on 27 April. There are going to be some intriguing witnesses over the next three weeks. I have picked out a few.…
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Isabella Wall
I was contacted by Gavin Wall in September last year in my role as a trustee of the Horizon Scandal Fund. Gavin’s mum Isabella had been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. Isabella was one of the 555 litigants who took the Post Office to court and won in 2019. The fund provided some financial help…
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Altman General Review finally published
On Friday, a key document in understanding the Post Office scandal was brought to the surface. It is the 15 October 2013 General Review into the Post Office’s past prosecutions and future prosecution policy, written by Brian Altman KC. The Review came up almost in passing during former Post Office auditor Chris Gilding’s evidence to…
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From the archives…
The gentleman behind this website – Andrew Neale, Master of the Dark Arts – is currently engaged in a mammoth project which involves taking every single secret email newsletter I have written and converting it into an archive. Each newsletter will then get posted up on this site once it is six months old. A…
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Jenkins wants inquiry ‘immunity’
Gareth Jenkins, the former Fujitsu engineer who has become a person of interest to the Metropolitan Police, has demanded certain assurances from the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry before he gives evidence. Jenkins, the subject of the first Clarke Advice and a spectre at the feast during the Bates v Post Office litigation wants an…
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Nailing Sir Peter Fraser – the legal hit squad
During the first week of phase two of the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry we discovered more about Lord Neuberger’s involvement in the decision to ask Mr Justice Fraser to recuse (remove) himself as managing judge from the Bates v Post Office group litigation, something the Post Office recognised internally was “the nuclear option.” It’s…
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Brian out of the shadows
Brian Altman KC advised the Post Office on the Horizon scandal from 2013 right up until 2021. He has, in his career, held the title of First Senior Treasury counsel – the most senior prosecution barrister in England. Brian Altman’s advice to the Post Office is privileged, which means that had the Post Office chosen…
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The Compensation Catch
Last week Alan Bates stunned a small, but significant number of members of the Justice for Subpostmasters’ Alliance with a circular sent out on 12 September. The members concerned are a sub-group of the 555 claimants in Bates v Post Office who have what the government are terming ‘complex’ situations. There are about 100 of…