Post Office scandal

[mangocrazy]

If anyone is interested in heading a little deeper down this rabbit hole, here is the written evidence submitted by Second Sight Support Services to the Parliamentary committee:

https://committees.parliament.uk/writte ... /917/html/

[Count Steer]

Just binge-watched all 4 episodes of Mr Bates vs. the PO, and besides making me really fucking angry, it made me realise that Fujitsu really should also be on the hook...

Not forgetting that Fujitsu, at the time, was pretty much ICL in a different frock. ICL started Horizon in '96 and were pretty much the national/state mainframe computer company and the go-to for government projects and key infrastructure companies*. (I think they only fully became Fujitsu in 2002 but they'd been involved a long time before that).

* IBM got quite a few big installations too, probably to keep the Merkins sweet. One company I worked for had 13 or 14 data centres and they were about 50/50.

[demographic]

Coincidental that this should happen only days after the ITV drama was unveiled?


https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ting-fraud

Private Eye bas been on this about the post office thing for yonks.

[Mussels]

The police investigation looks like it's paying lip service and not interested in exposing corrupt investigators. I wonder how many of them were ex-plod and employing plod standards?

[mangocrazy]

Just binge-watched all 4 episodes of Mr Bates vs. the PO, and besides making me really fucking angry, it made me realise that Fujitsu really should also be on the hook...

Not forgetting that Fujitsu, at the time, was pretty much ICL in a different frock. ICL started Horizon in '96 and were pretty much the national/state mainframe computer company and the go-to for government projects and key infrastructure companies*. (I think they only fully became Fujitsu in 2002 but they'd been involved a long time before that).

* IBM got quite a few big installations too, probably to keep the Merkins sweet. One company I worked for had 13 or 14 data centres and they were about 50/50.

I'd forgotten about ICL morphing into Fujitsu. Logical that the Govt/PO would award the Horizon contract to 'our boys', I guess. I worked in IBM shops for all my working life and it was clear from the '80s onwards that ICL were essentially a busted flush, certainly as far as hardware goes.

[Taipan]

Just binge-watched all 4 episodes of Mr Bates vs. the PO, and besides making me really fucking angry, it made me realise that Fujitsu really should also be on the hook for compensating all the out of pocket sub-postmasters (adjusted for inflation and interest rate rises, of course). To my mind an equitable solution would be for Fujitsu and the UK Government (as sole owner of the Post Office) should split the redress/compensation fees on a 50/50 basis.

And do it within the 2024 calendar year, you fuckers.

Sounds like i need to watch this!

[Yorick]

I'd have thought computer systems do the donkey work.
But also thought they'd have old fashioned accountants to check it all over?
Year end accounts would have had a lot of anomalies???

[Dodgy69]

My mil got a phone call the other week, asking if she wanted to pursue a claim, as she used to run a post office service from her village home.

She told them she wasn't bothered, no thank you.

Now that's a sign someone's got too old.

[MingtheMerciless]

This sort of thing boils my piss, utter scum and conniving bastards sending people to prison knowing their system was causing the problems. I really hope someone tracks them down and goes all Equalizer on them......(sorry had a few beers).

I've been following this for years, I remember being in Bude and as we drove past the closed up Poughill post office my Old Man saying that the postmistress had been done for fraud and gone to prison for it, I'd seen a C4 documentary about the issues a few weeks earlier so told him it could've been due to the computer system but he didn't believe me, the power of "the computer can't be wrong" really astounds and worries me.

[Taipan]

Over 1.1 million people signed the petition for her to hand back her CBE. She must be really feeling the pressure now!

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ ... t=memblast

[mangocrazy]

Over 1.1 million people signed the petition for her to hand back her CBE. She must be really feeling the pressure now!

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ ... t=memblast

I'd say it's inevitable; if she had any sense of contrition she'd be well advised to hand it back before she's stripped of the gong. But she seems pretty tone-deaf when it comes to admitting fault so she'll probably cling on to the bitter end.

[Bustaspoke]

I'm surprised it's taken so long for this scandal to gain momentum,it's been going on for years,it's outrageous what happened to some postmasters,the BBC did a couple of podcast series on it all.Here's the last series,it's a good listen if you like podcast's.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001sdw1

[mangocrazy]

Private Eye have been banging on about it for around 15 years and Computer Weekly for a similar length of time.

[McNab]

My mil got a phone call the other week, asking if she wanted to pursue a claim, as she used to run a post office service from her village home.

She told them she wasn't bothered, no thank you.

Now that's a sign someone's got too old.

I saw the Post Office Minister on TV the other day asking for people caught out by the Horizon system to come forward. he says it's a simple process, so if she ever lost out due to it she should really give it a go rather than let them get away with it.

Sounds like i need to watch this!

Everyone should watch it. Not only is it a shameful part of recent history, it's damn good TV.

[Mussels]

Many people might not want to come forward after being shafted by the justice system once already, they should just overturn all PO convictions and go after all levels on the prosecution side.

[McNab]

It's not only convictions though. How many people took out loans and re-mortgaged their homes to cover shortfalls? Were they all prosecuted or were a bunch just fired after they paid the money 'back'?

[mangocrazy]

Then there were the suicides and the jail time. No amount of compensation can recompense you for that.

[Taipan]

According to some news outlets, she is going to hand back her CBE.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-67922410

[mangocrazy]

Over 1.1 million people signed the petition for her to hand back her CBE. She must be really feeling the pressure now!

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ ... t=memblast

I'd say it's inevitable; if she had any sense of contrition she'd be well advised to hand it back before she's stripped of the gong. But she seems pretty tone-deaf when it comes to admitting fault so she'll probably cling on to the bitter end.

Apparently she's bowed to the inevitable and will be handing back her CBE with immediate effect.

[Dodgy69]

Just watched 2 episode...brilliant. Think she should do some jail time, handing back her cbe.