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Fujitsu’s Europe boss has instructed a public inquiry into the Submit Office scandal — one of the widest miscarriages of justice in UK ancient past — that the company does not trust the UK public body in its use of Horizon system data to present a enhance to future police prosecutions.
Speaking at the inquiry this week, Paul Patterson, director of Fujitsu Companies and products Ltd, described his unease concerning the Submit Office continuing to pursue native branch shortfalls basically based completely entirely on data from Horizon — the aging system at the centre of the scandal.
In a letter to Submit Office boss Slice Read, dated Would possibly well also this year, Patterson wrote of his “serious concerns” over the continuing pursuit of enforcement actions against postmasters, referring to a Metropolis of London police investigation into a Submit Office branch and a resulting call on Fujitsu to offer evidence.
Horizon is an EPOS and abet-finish finance system for hundreds of Submit Office branches across the UK, first implemented by ICL, a UK technology company later offered by Fujitsu. From 1999 until 2015, spherical 736 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses were wrongfully convicted of fraud when errors in the system were to blame. It destroyed the lives of many involved, leaving some bankrupt and others feeling suicidal, with several succeeding in ending their lives. While a quantity of convictions had been quashed in the courts, 60 folks died earlier than factual seeing any kind of justice served. A statutory inquiry into the mass miscarriage of justice launched in 2021 is ongoing.
In the letter from Would possibly well also, Patterson talked about Fujitsu “would have expected that the Post Office has changed its behavior in light of the criticisms and is appropriately circumspect with respect to any enforcement actions. It should not be relying on Horizon data as the basis for such shortfall enforcement.”
Speaking earlier than the Inquiry the outdated day, Patterson talked about the Submit Office ought to silent not depend “solely” on Horizon data to present a enhance to a prosecution.
He talked about it is miles “the entire present chain that offers information to Horizon and in truth to sub-postmasters themselves. You cannot depend entirely… on one data source.
“I would like to be satisfied that they are using more than just one data source, and I’ve not seen anything which tells me that they’re using more than one data source,” he talked about.
“On this particular topic, I absolutely don’t trust the Post Office,” he added.
In its response to Patterson’s Would possibly well also letter, the Submit Office talked about it had “invested significant time and resource effecting cultural and procedural change across the business,” the inquiry heard in October.
“I can reassure you that the Post Office is not now – and will not be in the future – undertaking any prosecutions against postmasters or any third parties as the prosecuting body,” Read talked about.
Nonetheless, it talked about it might perhaps use Horizon data when requested to present a enhance to criminal investigations or prosecutions pursued by independent third parties, corresponding to the police or Crown Prosecution Service.
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Older tools silent running
In his evidence this week, Patterson moreover talked about Fujitsu had not turned off some Horizon tools because it used to be too feeble.
“In my experience of 35 years in this industry, if you do not do disaster recovery, if you do not turn things off, if you don’t keep them upgraded, I cannot determine what will or will not happen, which is part of our nervousness about any extension [to Horizons lifespan].”
The Horizons system has been at “end of life” for a quantity of years, and the Submit Office is procuring a change, according to a notice printed in Would possibly well also. In October, the Submit Office started to examine for additional Horizon datacenter give a enhance to in a space of contracts which might perhaps total £100 million ($129 million). ®
