When a computer system installed by the Post Office went haywire, it led to the convictions of scores of subpostmasters for theft and false accounting. Lives were wrecked. But after a devastating ruling by the court of appeal, the full truth can now be finally told about the extent of the great Post Office scandal
When the Post Office installed a new accounting system called Horizon across its branches in 1999, it hoped to bring a lumbering and much-loved institution into the 21st century. What happened next resulted in one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in English legal history. The system contained bugs and glitches that showed up as wild shortfalls in the takings in Post Office branch tills. Subpostmasters instantly fell under suspicion for theft and false accounting.