Horizon inquiry chief threatens Post Office with ‘criminal sanctions’ over disclosure failures

The choose in command of the Post Office Horizon scandal public inquiry has threated “criminal sanctions” towards the Post Office if it continues with ongoing “significant failures” in disclosing proof.

Sir Wyn Williams said today that every one future inquiry requests for proof to the Post Office will carry a discover below Section 21 of the Inquiries Act 2005, which he stated “carries a threat of a criminal sanction” together with a sentence of as much as 51 weeks’ imprisonment. 

The transfer follows a collection of disclosure failures by the Post Office throughout the course of the general public inquiry – whereas Williams additionally famous that the organisation’s failures to reveal essential info has been an element all through the historical past of what has develop into probably the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK authorized historical past.

Williams was pressured to behave after additional delays in offering paperwork by the Post Office to the inquiry led to an adjournment of proceedings and a rescheduling of hearings deliberate for this month. The Post Office has taken 18 months to offer paperwork in some circumstances, the inquiry was advised.

On 4 July, Williams grilled the senior in-house lawyer on the Post Office, normal counsel Ben Foat, over continued delays and issues in offering the inquiry with requested paperwork.

Only two days later, Williams was pressured to postpone a listening to with a essential witness – Gareth Jenkins, former chief architect at Horizon provider Fujitsu – after “significant” proof included in hundreds of paperwork was disclosed simply hours earlier than Jenkins was set to be questioned by inquiry attorneys for the primary time.

Inquiry barrister Jason Beer KC revealed that 4767 paperwork together with some “significant” to Jenkins’ proof have been solely obtained from the Post Office at 10:32pm on 5 July, permitting no time for attorneys to analyse them. Jenkins will now give proof after the summer time break.

The following week, on 11 July, Williams introduced that part 4 of the statutory inquiry could be adjourned, after the Post Office as soon as extra advised the inquiry that it might not be potential to offer additional paperwork in time for hearings over the next weeks.

Williams stated he’s decided to be open minded and at this stage it’s not potential to supply definitive views about how the method of disclosure had been managed, however added: “It would be remiss of me to fail to guard against the possibility that there are those who are engaged in the process of disclosure of documents on behalf of the Post Office who are unwilling or unable to comply strictly with requests for disclosure of documents made of them by the inquiry.”

Williams has now known as Foat to seem earlier than the inquiry once more on 5 September to provide additional proof, alongside with “senior persons who are directly and substantially involved in the disclosure for Phase 4 of the inquiry”.

The inquiry chief stated that every one future requests for paperwork or info made to the Post Office can be made pursuant to a Section 21 discover, including: “For the reasons I have already given, this carries a threat of a criminal sanction.”

He will even now maintain common hearings to debate disclosure all through the rest of the inquiry. He stated the hearings have develop into vital due to the “significant failures in disclosure on the part of the Post Office”.

Before adjourning the inquiry, Williams requested the subpostmaster victims of the scandal for his or her views on additional delaying the method. He noticed that “there was no attempt to disguise the view held by many that the Post Office disclosure failings are deliberate”.

He added: “It does not surprise me that this is the attitude of many former subpostmasters. After all, a failure to disclose crucial information about Horizon was a central finding leading to the quashing of [their] criminal convictions in the Court of Appeal.”

In 2009, a Computer Weekly investigation first revealed that subpostmasters have been being blamed for unexplained accounting shortfalls, which they believed to be brought on by software program errors.

A complete of 736 subpostmasters have been prosecuted by the Post Office for theft and fraud between 2000 and 2015, based mostly on proof from the Horizon software program they use in branches.

But when 555 subpostmasters efficiently sued the Post Office within the High Court for wrongfully blaming and punishing them for unexplained shortages – resulting in jail sentences and chapter for some – the truth that the Horizon system was error-prone was proved. Since then, 86 subpostmasters to date have had prison convictions overturned and lots of extra are anticipated.