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Post by kabuki on Jan 9, 2024 21:12:57 GMT
Just finished the series. I cannot believe the PO behaved like that. Heads still need to roll. Also very pleased the gong has been returned.
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Post by spinninghead on Jan 9, 2024 22:19:16 GMT
The CBE is a medal - an award. It's puzzling how awards are known by the sound of a ringing bell...
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Post by Miranda on Jan 9, 2024 22:45:09 GMT
The very least. She should be in prison for perjury.
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Post by vicky on Jan 10, 2024 8:29:40 GMT
Yesterday I caught up with an old friend. Until they retired a couple of years ago she and her husband ran the local Post Office. It was part of a small shop and was attached to their house. They took over the business from the husband's father who, in turn, had taken over from his father meaning the business had been in the family for over 100 years. They are a very well known, highly regarded family in this small community. With their local history she said,imagine what the loss of their good name would have meant for them and their family. We spoke about the programne and what she and her husband had thought of it. They feel extremely fortunate that they never had a problem with the system - pure luck it seems - but also that they are no longer involved with the Post Office which she said had become a terrible organisation to work for.
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Post by monic on Jan 10, 2024 9:41:58 GMT
Nicky Campbell is on BBC2 with some postmasters. It’s harrowing, 1 former postmistress called in to say she’d been jailed and was safer in jail than dealing with the post office.
Another said the village shop closed after the postmaster was removed - shop wasn’t viable without the post office.
Now it’s a daughter of a deceased postmistress who was jailed and had to give up her further education degree to look after her siblings.
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Post by pearl06 on Jan 10, 2024 10:21:26 GMT
The people on that programme were on BBC Breakfast beforehand. The interviews lasted an hour which is unusual. This is going to run and run.
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Post by marion on Jan 10, 2024 10:50:21 GMT
People power! And since my 6 Jan post it doubled to over 1.2mn. I think they should go after Fujitsu now, big time. People who lied and covered up and accessed remotely etc should be tried. Perjury, perverting the course of justice, false accounting, theft… The PO tried people for such crimes so now the worm must turn and try them. And how about someone actually finding where the bloody money went (a suspense account allegedly) and returning it. That’s over and above any compensation.
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Post by goodhelenstar on Jan 10, 2024 11:56:48 GMT
Interesting interview on the Today programme this morning with Karl Flinders, who originally covered this back in 2004 in Computer Weekly and subsequently wrote about it in Private Eye along with Nick Wallis, the BBC's investigative reporter whose radio series The Great British Post Office Trial is available as a podcast. He points out that every computer program has glitches so the PO's repeated claim that the system was robust and bug-free does not stand up. He also points out that the Government has multiple contracts with Fujitsu, covering a large part of IT in the UK, that it cannot extricate itself from. This story is not news, it's such a pity it took a TV programme to bring it to the attention of a wider public and force the hand of politicians who knew about it and shoved it under the carpet for years. The interview is here: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001v3hp, about 45 minutes in, and the podcast is here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000jf7j |
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Post by beverley61 on Jan 10, 2024 12:15:08 GMT
When you start a fraud investigation. You have:
1. Decided someone is likely committing fraud
2. Look at how they might be doing it
3. Look at their bank accounts and savings to see where the money is
4. Look at their lifestyle e.g. new car, holidays, trips, expensive items purchased.
5. Arrest and charge them and go to court
There was none of this here because nobody was defrauding the post office. The money never existed. However, the victims did pay back non-existent money from their own actual savings - many more than we know, did this and simply left their business worried about being prosecuted. Potentially thousands more than have come forward. They paid money they had never stolen in order not to be prosecuted. This money then became profit for the PO/Govt.
God, I hope they don't drag this out for another 10 years for these people.
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Post by monic on Jan 10, 2024 12:27:40 GMT
The problem with the computer system is going to grow. As previously stated the Government has several contracts with Fijitsu and this will get political. If they insult Fijitsu the Japanese government will react. I wonder if the tax credits software came from there as that caused multiple overpayments / underpayments but if you took a case to tribunal HMRC caved in cos they couldn’t print or reproduce the information as the computer system didn’t keep it.
Listening to the callers this morning I’ll need to brace myself to watch the drama but I also worry about our current postmasters who must be living in fear of their own computer.
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Post by beverley61 on Jan 10, 2024 14:47:51 GMT
I bet Fujitsu has corrected the errors by now as nobody else seems to be falling foul of it.
As I understand it most of them weren't charged with fraud, they were charged with false accounting. Perhaps that doesn't need so much of an evidence trail, but were judges seriously falling for this. It appeared to be a case of the PO saying there was nothing wrong with their system and that was it. There has never been a system that didn't have some kind of glitch in the early stages so I find this very strange. No evidence of people living the high life, buying other properties, having a ton of savings etc.
This lack of evidence apparently convinced juries up and down the country. Makes you weep.
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Post by marion on Jan 10, 2024 15:40:22 GMT
One of the many contracts the scumbag firm Fujitsu got was the nuclear alert to every mobile phone apparently. You know, the one where LOADS of people, myself included, didn’t receive it. So it sounds as if they are not much better. I think they should be named, fully exposed for the lying gits they were and shamed, all of the complicit mob. If the Japanese don’t like it, tough bananas. I also think the PO prosecutors who were so vindictive should be examined because if any of them knew the system was faulty then they have acted in bad faith. God, the whole thing makes my blood boil!
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Post by vicky on Jan 10, 2024 16:33:12 GMT
They paid money they had never stolen in order not to be prosecuted. This money then became profit for the PO/Govt.
Which falsely inflated the Post Office profits and reduced any deficit. Does that amount to false accounting? If so, they are guilty of the very crime they wrongly accused the postmasters of. I bet everyone on the PO/Government side slithers out of it though.
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Post by beverley61 on Jan 10, 2024 17:28:26 GMT
So do I. They'll slope off with pensions intact.
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Post by marion on Jan 11, 2024 10:38:18 GMT
I’m not so sure how much is on the Government side. The PO seemed to have run its own little fiefdom. Those prosecutors didn’t need to take the police or the CPS along with them, they could do want they wanted, or that is my understanding. I think the enquiry should definitely focus some attention on them because they seem to have been heartless bar stewards who knew they were screwing money from innocent people, imho, just to protect the PO brand. And let’s get some close attention on Fujitsu too, who apparently used to be ICL! I only heard that yesterday. One Fujitsu guy has said he will only testify if he gets immunity from prosecution, which has so far been denied.
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Anymore to come?
