Covert recordings prove Post Office covered up scandal for years

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Published 2024-03-27
When the public inquiry into the Horizon scandal resumes next month, Post Office executives will again be questioned over what they knew, when, and what they did about it.

This programme has obtained secret recordings of conversations over a decade ago between senior Post Office executives and the independent forensic accountants hired to find out whether sub-postmasters were to blame for the shortfalls at branches using the Horizon system. And, as we exclusively report, they prove beyond doubt that the Post Office covered up the scandal for years as they continued to pursue innocent employees through the courts.

Produced by Nanette van der Laan.

Music: Free Music Archive.

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All Comments (21)
  • @emmiebl6605
    These senior PO and Fujitsu people need to go to prison. The shame of this. Absolutely shocking.
  • @Zaf2010
    The Post Office Hierarchy and Fujisu need to be prosecuted
  • Well done Channel 4 on getting these recordings. Expose these lying bastards! People died, were falsely convicted and accused of crimes that they did not commit, families lost their homes and savings, families were destroyed and the damage caused by Fujitsu and The Post Office is simply incalculable!
  • Vennells must be immediately charged for crimes against postmasters. No more waiting for inquiries. The evidence is fully available. Police need to enforce the rule of law.
  • @TBrl8
    Fujitsu need to be massively penalized here, this is outrageous.
  • @kevinhayes7830
    If prison sentences are not handed out here we have got to question our legal system pure disgusting 🤬
  • @soundssimple1
    Well done channel 4 . Excellent work. People need to be jailed for at least as long as those poor Post Office staff. No jury would let them off.
  • @victorwgrana
    Why have the police not arrested all the senior members of the Post Office Management?.
  • @mys0076
    People need to go to jail, really.
  • Why are these covert recordings only now being shared? Perhaps if they had been shared sooner, Seema Misra would not have been flung into prison with an unborn child in her womb, Lee Castleton would not have been bankrupted, and Martin Griffiths would be sitting with his feet in the sand somewhere, enjoying the Easter vacation. Even sadder than that, this is our system of justice. It took this many ruined lives and this many years to uncover this miscarriage of justice. What about all the cases of individual people with no big group action to bring and no James Arbuthnot, no Alan Bates to bring their truth to light? If we think we can pay off the post office workers and go back to pretending the system works for everybody else, we are deluding ourselves.
  • @annh.8290
    The whole thing sickens me, and through all this Paula Vennells was even an Anglican priest!
  • @Matthistory07
    Great reporting. Well done Channel 4 News. This scandal just keeps getting more sickening.
  • Something that has not been mentioned enough, is the fact that many of the Sub Postmasters not only suffered financial disaster, but people in their own communities believed that they were guilty and honest people that had good standing, were mercilessly ostracised and victimised. No amount of pardons and money will ever put that right, and the creatures that knowingly perpetrated those criminal attacks must be bought to justice, especially as they no doubt profited financially through their salaries.
  • @soviet700
    And who’s going to prison for deception,fraud and criminality? Or are they rich? The law doesn’t apply to them
  • Utterly shocking! I know for many years some of the affected postmasters as they are local to me, and how their lives have been shattered. How can they be truly compensated! Surely, somebody needs to be accountable, and punished?
  • @Spitfire67UK
    Longggg jail time should be handed out to those involved in the cover up. And stop scrimping on compensation fine Fujitsu billions and pay those innocent people now
  • @markg6953
    It just confirms my belief that we are now living in a dystopian society.
  • @RankinMsP
    14 years ... Whose been in charge for 14 years? Who continues to give Fujitsu contracts? They should all be in jail.