So sad watching this. My lovely local Post Office closed down because of it. It was owned by a lovely family and their son was accused of theft as he was the postmaster. He went to prison for 18 months. His mum told customers it was the new Horizon system but rumours spread that he was a thief. Nobody would use their little corner shop anymore and people were racist against them as they were an Asian family. He was the nicest, most efficient postmaster and was super fast with serving you. So very sad they lost their home and business.
It is not just the post office who need to be punished but the computer company Fujitsu who are very culpable too. They covered up their own mistakes and ut the blame onto the postmasters and should be closed down. An absolute disgrace. Those poor postmasters and families.
And Paula Vennells walked into a top job at the NHS. Didn't stay long . I wonder why ??
That’s so very sad - my heart breaks watching what these families went through
no, I haven`t watched it, I heard of this way back, and so fed up, heartily fed up, difficult to think about the corruption in the UK,(let alone the rest of the world) and so little we can do about it, and we, ie. the Western world preach to other countries about their corruption, UGH!
It was a terrible injustice and so many people in senior management knew but ignored it.
Why was our media so quiet about it? Even now? I had read about these horrible injustices some time ago, but it was never really explained.
Ladyleftfieldlover - so very sad for your postmistress. Nothing could compensate her for her losses. All too little, and far too late. Makes me feel that we are truly living in a second rate country.
Ps This man wrecked people's lives, some committed suicide - and he's embarrassed??
🤬
Post Officer investigator Gary Thomas
emailed his colleague to say he wanted to prove there was ‘FFFiiinnn no case for the justice of thieving subpostmasters’ [sic] and that ‘we were the best investigators they ever had and they were all crooks’.
Thomas, giving evidence to the inquiry, said his words then were ‘absolutely disgraceful’. He added: ‘My inference here, that everybody was guilty, is wrong and I’m embarrassed, is all I can say.’
Embarrassed?
Thomas had no previous experience of criminal investigations before joining the security team, but a three week residential course soon put that right.
www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/post-office-investigator-dismissed-victims-as-crooks-inquiry-hears/5118188.article
www.postofficescandal.uk/post/garys-years-of-hurt/
Found the petition on 38 Degrees and signed, signatures up to about 117,000 now a sharp increase, that's all we can do to show our outrage. I'm not on FB but sent it on to my friend who is, who will get to work on that score.
This programme was making me so angry that I had to stop watching it. I had no idea of the extent of it and it's truly shocking.
I swear this thread seemed to temporarily disappear, but now is back again. We should have watched this from the start instead of the rather violent and slightly rubbishy The Tourist over on BBC. Caught up with this last night, two episodes, Oh God what a travesty, what a miscarriage of justice. That man, Alan Bates, what a hero! and certainly shamed Paula Vennells, has the woman no moral fibre she accepted her CBE in 2019 when so many of the innocent post masters/mistresses had had their lives ruined. Like many of the public, I knew the bare bones but had no idea of the extent of it, how they were stitched up in so many ways, the awful Horizon computer system, the shocking revelation that their accounts could be accessed, the helpline that would tell them "no one else is having these problems" all of it. No one at the Post Office least of all her, Paula Vennels accepting any culpability. shocking!
If I were a middle-ranking executive who worked in the Post Office during Vennells 'tenure, I would be seriously worried.
It is obvious from the brief clip shown on ITV news of her questioning, and refusing to answer, at the tribunal(?) by Savid Javid that she feels not the slightest shred of guilt, and that someone else will be held responsible, for giving her the wrong advice.
Like Ed Davey, who refused to meet Alan Bates, because he was told not to.
I have read the Private Eye examination of the case and it is an example of thorough detailed journalism. It makes me shudder to think that there is no guarantee that such a scandal could not recur; and that we are all in thrall to these huge organisations and global companies. Three cheers for the MPs who took up the case.
Petition signed. I could barely contain my tears and rage whilst watching this programme. Paula Vennells should face criminal prosecution and prison. Is she still an ordained priest? If so, she should be fearing the flames of hell.
I remember reading every single week in the newspapers from around 2012 about yet another postmaster found guilty of fraud. I commented to my husband how strange and unusual it was that there was a sudden plethora of crooked postmasters. His exact words were "there must be more to it". How right he was.
100,000 signed
Petition signed and shared on FB.
Was on the news tonight that people are calling for her to hand back CBE
Great post GoldieOldie15 and how true. It is utterly chilling to think how weak and vulnerable we all are if the big computer in the sky decides to eliminate us. It's frightening how much computers control our lives and this will only get worse with the coming of AI.
That woman should be hanged drawn and quartered . Disgusting how she continued absolving self from all responsibility for the consequences of the system installed and fully endorsed by her and her organisation. As I watched it I became more and more frightened. The story has spelt out how vulnerable most of us are when faced by unjust high handed behaviour of big public organisations. We are really completely powerless if they decide that we should be so. Justice system is expensive and in the main only offers protection to those with deep pockets. We are like little insects that can be stamped on at will by big boots. Reminds me of Soviet Union (and the Russian Federation now) and the gulags and the psychiatric hospitals where sane people were and still are regularly sent to; on the basis that if you disagree or challenge them you were either a criminal or mad. It’s almost as if the victims portrayed in the drama (and the actual victims) lived in a totalitarian state - the control that the Post Office exercised over their lives and livelihoods was TOTAL
Post Office can’t access records of all money paid to it by victims of the Horizon scandal
A parliamentary select committee was told that the Post Office is unable to access information to accurately calculate compensation for some Horizon scandal victims
By
Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA
Published: 11 Jan 2022 15:00
The Post Office has admitted that due to limitations in underlying accounting systems, it does not have a record of all the money paid by subpostmasters wrongly forced to cover unexplained losses in their accounts.
Money paid in to cover losses which did not exist.
80,125 🙂
There are so many unanswered questions, sazz1
What I'm wondering is fujitzu had remote access to the terminals so did their employees take the money missing and falsify the individual post offices terminals to cover it? Or was the missing money never there in the first place - so when some postmasters made up the imaginary shortfall from their own money where did that money go? The books wouldn't balance if that was the case, as it would show thousands of ££s over the correct amount. Post Office accounts would flag this up in an audit wouldn't it.
Petition signed.
I shared it on e mail
Petition signed
I'm so pleased the drama is dealing with the emotional fall out. The distress and trauma these people suffered is so palpable I want to cry with them.
But that's not to say the acting is melodramatic.
How can she sleep at night?
I hope she can't, Elrel
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