Problem is that the people that are supposed to throw that book are just as morally (but potentially not only morally) corrupt and may too have skeletons in their closet. It is a systemic problem. The Post Office wouldn't have taken such a gamble unless they knew they'd be able to talk their way out of any consequences should it backfire.
Indeed. But who are they who lied to the courts? This article says the BBC has a false Statement of Truth signed by one of them, but does not name them.
Sadly in this country the establishment has a history of protecting those of a certain status in society. Even if there is a prosecution, it will likely be dragged out for so long that those culpable will die before a sentence is passed.
I spotted a few oddities in the reporting of these ‘secret papers’.[1]
The only extract of the report the journalists show is, at the very least, misleading. They’re claiming that Fujitsu employees could do a type of requests which would (i) change the record of the transactions in the audit log and (ii) would actually impact the postmasters accounting position.
However, the report actually states that these are two different types of requests, the first one doesn’t impact the accounting position and the second one (BTs) could change the accounting position but would be recorded in the audit log.
The audit log shows that BTs, have only been used once in the period at hand so are unlikely to have caused the accounting shortfalls.
I would quite like to see the original Post Office “Defense” that is mentioned in the article, but don’t know where to find it. Would somebody have a clue?
> "In June 2016, Tim Parker, the Post Office's then-chairman, told government ministers he had stopped an investigation into Horizon on legal advice, because of the upcoming court action by postmasters. The existence of that letter from the former chairman was revealed by the BBC last month.
In it, he said the Post Office would "instead address the issues through equivalent work taken forward in the litigation".
Now, the discovery of the draft Bramble report indicates that the investigation into Horizon, originally ordered by the government, actually continued in secret for more than a year, focusing on the branches involved in the case.
In it, Deloitte reviewed Horizon documents, examined transaction data and interviewed Fujitsu and Post Office staff. The purpose was to find out if Horizon was causing sub-postmasters' financial losses.
Deloitte found that while remote tampering by Fujitsu was possible, it would be "a complex procedure" and "likely a 'programme' would have to be written and performed".
In a table, the draft report detailed hundreds of debited transactions entered by "non-branch users", who the report explained "can access branches remotely for support purposes"."
The only extract of the report the journalists show is, at the very least, misleading. They’re claiming that Fujitsu employees could do a type of requests which would (i) change the record of the transactions in the audit log and (ii) would actually impact the postmasters accounting position. However, the report actually states that these are two different types of requests, the first one doesn’t impact the accounting position and the second one (BTs) could change the accounting position but would be recorded in the audit log. The audit log shows that BTs, have only been used once in the period at hand so are unlikely to have caused the accounting shortfalls.
I would quite like to see the original Post Office “Defense” that is mentioned in the article, but don’t know where to find it. Would somebody have a clue?
[1] https://www.postofficehorizoninquiry.org.uk/evidence/pol0002...
In it, he said the Post Office would "instead address the issues through equivalent work taken forward in the litigation".
Now, the discovery of the draft Bramble report indicates that the investigation into Horizon, originally ordered by the government, actually continued in secret for more than a year, focusing on the branches involved in the case.
In it, Deloitte reviewed Horizon documents, examined transaction data and interviewed Fujitsu and Post Office staff. The purpose was to find out if Horizon was causing sub-postmasters' financial losses.
Deloitte found that while remote tampering by Fujitsu was possible, it would be "a complex procedure" and "likely a 'programme' would have to be written and performed".
In a table, the draft report detailed hundreds of debited transactions entered by "non-branch users", who the report explained "can access branches remotely for support purposes"."
The victims, I mean.
We can't have these hooligans running around exposing corruption at the highest levels. That's bad for business.