London, Thanasis Gavos

The topic of unfair accusations and prosecutions of financial fraud has become a top political issue in Britain which had been assigned by the central administration of the British Post Office (Post Office) at the expense of hundreds of men and women who headed local post offices.

The charges related to deficits in local post office accountswith local branch heads designated by central management as responsible.

In the end, it turned out that the deficits were the product of miscalculations due to technical problems in the Horizon software of the Japanese company Fujitsu. It was the software that the administration had introduced of the Post Office in 1999 for accounting and other day-to-day tasks.

Many of the defendants had initially but in vain indicated to central management that the software suffered from technical problems.

From 1999 to 2015 the Post Office prosecuted at least 736 local postmasters and charged a total of nearly 3,500 of them. Some ended up in prison on charges of false accounting and theft, others committed suicide, hundreds are still suffering psychologically and many were financially ruined as they tried to cover the shortfalls with their own money, among other things.

After years the victims of what has been described as “the biggest miscarriage of justice in British history” won in 2021 the legal battle to review their cases. However, so far only 93 convictions have been overturned.

The case was thrust back into the political spotlight after the first episode of the ITV drama TV series based on the true events aired.

The then Postmaster General Paula Vennells has announced that she is returning the honorary title of Commander of the British Empire (CBE) she was awarded after an online petition gathered more than a million signatures from citizens.

Under pressure to resign in an election year is Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, who has been accused of poor handling of the case when he was Under Secretary of State for Post Office in the coalition government from 2010 to 2012, when he was confirmed the problem with Horizon.

Current Deputy Minister Kevin Hollinreik said the government’s plan to exonerate all victims of wrongful charges would be announced shortly.

The opposition calls on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to make relevant announcements in the House of Commons even within Wednesday.

Justice Minister Alex Chalk said on Tuesday that emergency legislation that would strike all charges was “actively” being considered.