Those of you who have been following the excellent ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office should be delighted that the police are investigating possible crimes by those acting on behalf of Post Office Limited and Fujitsu. But these inquiries are proceeding at the speed of a glacier.

According to the BBC,

Between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 branch owner-operators [sub-postmasters] were wrongly prosecuted for theft, fraud and false accounting, on the basis of faulty information from Horizon software introduced by the Post Office.

Some went to prison. Many were financially ruined. Some have since died.

The affair has been described by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) as “the most widespread miscarriage of justice the CCRC has ever seen and represents the biggest single series of wrongful convictions in British legal history”.

An independent public inquiry led by retired judge Sir Wyn Williams is continuing. Events surrounding the scandal are back in the spotlight because of an ITV drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which has been screened this week.

But there are even more victims, it seems, because:

The Met said it was investigating possible fraud offences from these cases.

It comes as 50 new potential victims of the scandal have contacted lawyers.

The Met Police said the potential offences could have been related to “monies recovered from sub-postmasters as a result of prosecutions or civil actions”.

But here’s the rub: the Met has been investigating potential offences of perjury and perverting the course of justice in relation to presecutions carried out by the Post Office since 2020 – and has interviewed just two people. No arrests have taken place.

So don’t hold your breath waiting for any results.

And remember: 2024 is the 25th year since the prosecutions of sub-postmasters began – based on an insecure software system that provided data that was either false or was altered by staff at the firm that developed it – the Bracknell-based UK branch of Fujitsu.

Why is it all taking so long to resolve?

Well, perhaps the answer lies in the names of the people involved.

For example:

So the UK’s current prime minister’s family has a financial interest in the well-being of the firm whose softward caused this scandal.

So the firm whose software caused this scandal was being run, at the time, by the husband of a senior Conservative Party member (and subsequent Cabinet minister).

Then there’s Simon Blagden (who is apparently a former chairman of Fujitsu):

The perks aren’t all flowing one way, though. Paula Vennells, the CEO of Post Office Limited at the time of the scandal, was awarded a CBE by Boris Johnson when he was prime minister:

For clarity, it seems the Horizon software system developed by Fujitsu was always known to be faulty and those behind it at the company knew it should never have been handed over to Post Office Limited for distribution to sub-postmasters. But it was.

Sub-postmasters soon discovered that the software was faulty when they realised that it was refusing to balance their accounts – instead producing deficits of thousands of pounds. When they complained to the helpline (as pointed out in the Have I Got News For You clip above), they were told that nobody else had complained. This was a lie.

Worse,

And what happened?

This:

It is understood that staff at both Fujitsu and Post Office Limited knew sub-postmasters were being wrongly accused, but stood by and let it happen. As some committed suicide, that would put blood on their hands, as indicated by the following post, commenting on information from a former sub-postmaster who was (wrongly? – I put this with a question-mark because I don’t know whether proceedings are taking place or have in the past) prosecuted and suffered a nervous breakdown as a result

The TV drama suggests that former sub-postmaster’s union rep (and a prosecuted sub-postmaster himself) Michael Rudkin visited Fujitsu and witnessed staff tampering with the accounts of other sub-postmasters.

Here’s what (it seems) Fujitsu did when an independent investigator inquired about the visit:

The man who played Mr Rudkin on TV has posted on ‘X’ in support of him – but I want to draw your attention to Mark Hirst’s comment:

How many of us are being ripped off by faulty or fraudulent IT systems produced and marketed by unscrupulous corporations?

And here’s the real burn: Fujitsu, now known to have sold rubbish to one of our (formerly) most-trusted institutions – rubbish that has ruined its reputation – is still receiving public-sector contracts from the UK’s Tory government (that has so many members and former members connected to the firm in some way).

Looking at the post immediately below: given the first two facts, is the third any surprise at all?

Consider also this:

And this:

All of the above is happening despite this:

So even when this corporation was known to have bungled a job, it still managed to sue the contractor and come out on top. That in itself should be enough to halt the flow of money from the UK Treasury to this organisation – but it hasn’t.

Conclusion: don’t expect any joy from police investigations or the public inquiry into the Post Office scandal; Fujitsu and the Post Office are too big to take down, and they are too well-connected to government figures. Any corruption – and all the indications are that all three organisations are institutionally corrupt – will be disputed in the courts, where any cases are likely to be delayed continually by the use of a never-ending supply of money from the public purse.

In effect, these organisations will use our own money to harm us.

Oh – on the subject of money: what happened to all the cash that Post Office Limited demanded that sub-postmasters had to pay back? The amounts Horizon said they owed never existed, so if they were forced to pay money to “balance” their accounts, they deserve to have it returned. If it has been sitting in bank accounts, they deserve to have it returned along with any interest it has accrued.

Has that happened? Will it? I’m betting that the answer to both questions is a big, fat “no”.

Last word on this goes to Phil BD, below, who received a curious response when he tried to find out Fujitsu’s current share price:

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