The inquiry has now started and former IT architect for Fujitsu Gareth Jenkins has been called to the stand.The former chief IT architect for Fujitsu, the company that designed Horizon, provided evidence and reports backing up the reliability of the system in a number of Post Office prosecutions.
In the last instance, in November, it had to be postponed again after a last-minute dump of 3,045 new documents. As it progressed, Ms Vennells faced increasing criticism and eventually stepped down in 2019, having been paid £4.5m during her time as boss.However, as the scandal grew, she quit in December 2020 for"personal reasons".Mr Bates gave his name to the ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, which brought the case to a wider audience and sparked outrage over the injustice.
Much of his tenure was shrouded in controversy and he made a timely exit in 2022, a week before the independent public inquiry into the botched IT system began. He refused Mr Bates's request to meet him in 2010, saying in a short three-paragraph letter"it wouldn't serve any purpose". Speaking to MPs on the business committee on 16 January, he said the company had still"not got to the bottom of" what happened to the cash paid by sub-postmasters and mistresses in a bid to cover the false financial black holes created by the Horizon software.
Mr Patterson, who has been in his current role since 2019, said he did not know why the tech firm did not act when it knew there were glitches in the system.Hundreds of sub-postmasters and mistresses had their reputations ruined by false allegations of theft and false accounting, with many left bankrupt or in prison, as a result of a computer system called Horizon.
Sub-postmasters and mistresses - the staff in charge of branches - soon began noticing shortfalls in company accounts and complained the system was faulty. Several of them sued the Post Office and when the series of lengthy civil cases came to an end in December 2019, the company agreed to settle with 555 victims.Days later a High Court judgment ruled that the Horizon IT system was not fit for purpose and there was a"material risk" of shortfalls appearing on accounts due to"bugs, errors and defects".
There are now three separate compensation schemes, with £130m paid out across 2,500 victims so far. The government recently promised a lump sum of £600,000 to each victim to address concerns.
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