The UK government announced that every postmaster convicted because of Fujitsu’s flawed Horizon IT system will be offered hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation.
More than 700 people running small local post offices were found guilty of false accounting and theft between 1999 and 2015 because the Horizon system insisted money was missing. The Post Office and Fujitsu made matters worse by not telling anyone that the software was turning up an unlikely number of criminals.
Reports from Computing Magazine at the time found IT workers in the Post Office and Fujitsu who knew the system was borked and had told their managers.
Some owners of local Post Office were imprisoned or left out of pocket after being asked to make up the shortfalls, while others failed to find other jobs and lost their homes.
The scandal surrounding the Horizon IT system has been described at a public inquiry into the affair as “the worst miscarriage of justice in recent British legal history”.
Eighty-six postmasters have so far seen their convictions overturned and £21 million paid in compensation.
The government said those who have already received interim compensation or have settled with the Post Office for less than £600,000 will be paid the difference.
Post office minister Kevin Hollinrake said: “This is about righting a wrong and providing some relief to those wrongfully caught up in this scandal. Too many postmasters have suffered for too long, which is why the government remains committed to seeing this through until it is.”
The government said that the broader compensation scheme, including other post office staff, caught up in the scandal, has paid more than GBP120 million to 2,600 individuals.
