The sub-postmasters scandal

[honeybee13]

Here's Gareth Jenkins that @cjcregg referred to earlier today, in the Times. Also Anne Chambers and the Met investigation into both of them.

An investigation involving colleagues Gareth Jenkins, 71, and Anne Chambers, 66, was opened after a judge said that defects and bugs in the system that they knew about were “kept secret”.

https://archive.is/o4dFR

[honeybee13]

Is he in any position to demand immunity?

[honeybee13]

Some of the press are focussing on Fujitsu/Horizon today.

Adam Crozier has distance himself from Horizon, saying he had nothing to do with it when he was head of Royal Mail, although he was there from 2003 to 2010. POCL wasn't split off until 2012. Hmm.

I hadn't realised that Michael Keegan, husband of the current education minister, was CEO of Fujitsu between 2014 and 2018.

 

 

 

[honeybee13]

I haven't seen that figure,  CJ. Do you have a link please?

[honeybee13]

So it's £75k full stop?? I'd be fuming too.

Ministers only seem to look at the overall cost and not think about what it means to the individual.

I can see another petition coming on about the compensation.

[honeybee13]

Thank you. I fear they still think of postmasters as the little people who'll be bought off easily.

This isn't the petition I was thinking of but there are some new ones saying Alan Bates should get a knighthood. I do hope they've asked him if he wants one.

[honeybee13]

I saw in the Guardian live feed that a Tory minister who was standing in for someone else said he asked to see Paula Vennells. He wanted to understand the situation better; she refused to meet him without her lawyer.

That tells us something, this isn't normal.

[honeybee13]

And how many other ministers did AB write to? I think Davey is being used as a distraction?

Are you sure the DPP can just take over prosecutions from an institution that's done its own for 300 years?

[honeybee13]

Here's tonight's Graun editorial on the SPMs.

The Guardian view on justice for the sub-postmasters: the reckoning has only just begun | Editorial | The Guardian

WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM

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Editorial: Compensation for innocent victims of the Post Office scandal must be accompanied by a ruthless process of holding their tormentors to account

 

[honeybee13]

This is Jo Hamilton on Twitter, to Sunak and Zahawi.

'You still haven't paid to GLO group and the fact that you think throwing £75k at people will help, just shows how completely out of touch you are. Wouldn't even cover the interest on what has been stolen from them by POL'

[honeybee13]

Tom Witherow in the Times is doing a lot of work on this.

'Important point when writing about Horizon scandal:

 

There are 4,000+ victims - not 'hundreds':

** 983 overturned convictions

** 2,750 HSS (lost money, weren't prosecuted)

** c. 500 more in #MrBatesVsThePostOffice group (exc OC)

** 100+ more came forward post-ITV.

 

Total = 4,333

 

ETA: Tax guru Dan Neidle says the PO don't know how many people were affected.

 

Also that some SPMs were pressured into signing draconian non-disclosure agreements [NDAs] with little or no legal advice. He thinks they should be released from the NDA obligations so they're free to speak.

[honeybee13]

The public inquiry today has Stephen Bradshaw, PO investigator.

From the Guardian 'Bradshaw has been described as having a “heavy footprint” in the scandal after being involved in the criminal investigation of nine post office operators.'

 

[honeybee13]

So you think the Graun has this wrong, CJ?

[honeybee13]

Judge Wyn Williams has just told Bradshaw that he's allowed to refuse to answer a question if he thinks it could incriminate him, or words to that effect. He has lawyers in court who will be allowed to advise him today.

[honeybee13]

I see what CJ means about Bradshaw. They seem to be tying him up in knots and the answers seem to indicate that he was only following orders and that a lot of his WS asserting fair investigations was written by Cartwright King who acted for POL.

And he isn't technical so he seems to be implying he didn't understand Horizon.

[honeybee13]

You seem to know a lot about this?

[honeybee13]

I'm confused. Is the GLO 555 Alan Bates's group?

[honeybee13]

It just sounds worse and worse.

I haven't watched hearings before, Stephen Bradshaw is sounding like a broken record giving as little information as possible.

John Hyde, deputy ed of the Law Gazette tweeted this earlier.

'Seen a lot of tweets from people saying Post Office investigator Stephen Bradshaw is coming across as incompetent and/or blindly defending the PO. For those of us who have covered the inquiry before, let me tell you this is nothing new.'

He also thinks the PO have stitched up Bradshaw and that today is a PR disaster.

'Worth repeating that if the Post Office had not failed to disclose documents last year, Stephen Bradshaw would have given evidence in November without any of this scrutiny and publicity. Today's PR disaster is entirely the Post Office's making.'

[honeybee13]

They're desperate to deflect attention from the Tories, aren't they?

[honeybee13]

I was thinking about some of the questions put to Bradshaw at the inquiry today. Numerous victims have said he told them they were the only one having problems and that he harassed them with multiple phone calls.

He says the interviews were conducted under PACE rules so why aren't there detailed notes [that could be selectively edited I suppose] or recordings?

I wonder if that's part of the evidence that POL withheld.

[honeybee13]

Is there a link please, CJ? I haven't seen that.

[honeybee13]

Is this it?

Post Office lied and threatened BBC over Horizon whistleblower

WWW.BBC.COM

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The company smeared postmasters in a failed bid to suppress evidence of their innocence, the BBC can reveal.

 

[honeybee13]

Why’s it been so hard for postmasters to receive justice from the Post Office? One theory: senior Post Office staff secretly believe the postmasters are guilty. That theory is now confirmed:

This is from Nick Wallis on TalkTV.

EXCLUSIVE: Secret recordings reveal current Director of Comms at the Post Office Richard Taylor insinuating sub-postmasters caught up in the scandal "are criminals". "Some of them downright stole it." "At the moment the narrative is they are all innocent."

 

[honeybee13]

That could be interesting if they don't attempt a whitewash. I hope the inquiry has some good questions lined up.

[honeybee13]

Dan Neidle again on the SPMs compensation scheme.

The Post Office paid £15.75 compensation to one of its victims. Here's the nine ways they minimise payouts.

WWW.TAXPOLICY.ORG.UK

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I keep going back to this Daily Mail story in which a postmaster who was financially ruined received only £8,000 compensation. How could that...