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Post Office Inquiry: Bosses “Maintained a Fiction” as Lives Were Ruined
London, July 2025 — Executives at the heart of the Post Office scandal knowingly “maintained a fiction” about the reliability of its Horizon IT system while hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted, a public inquiry has heard.
In a damning session at the ongoing statutory inquiry, it was revealed that top officials within the Post Office repeatedly ignored mounting evidence that the Horizon accounting software, developed by Fujitsu, was riddled with bugs and flaws. Despite knowing the system’s shortcomings, senior management insisted on its infallibility, allowing criminal charges and financial ruin to continue for nearly two decades.
A Culture of Denial
Lead counsel to the inquiry, Jason Beer KC, described a “culture of concealment and blame” that infected the Post Office leadership. “What we have uncovered is a deliberate and sustained effort by those in power to maintain a fiction — that Horizon was robust and sub-postmasters were to blame for discrepancies,” Beer said.
Internal documents and emails shown at the hearing revealed that Post Office executives were warned as early as 2001 about serious issues with the Horizon system, but these were downplayed or dismissed outright. Sub-postmasters, many of whom were respected figures in their communities, were instead accused of theft, fraud, and false accounting.
Lives Destroyed
Between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 sub-postmasters were convicted based on Horizon data. Many were jailed. Others lost their homes, reputations, and mental health. Tragically, some took their own lives.
Alan Bates, the former sub-postmaster who spearheaded the campaign for justice, said outside the inquiry: “They destroyed lives to protect a lie. And they did it knowingly. There are no words for the cruelty that was allowed to continue.”
Executives Under Scrutiny
Much of the current phase of the inquiry is focused on the roles of key individuals — including former Post Office CEOs Paula Vennells and Adam Crozier — who are accused of failing to act when evidence of system errors became undeniable.
Vennells, who was forced to hand back her CBE earlier this year, is expected to face further grilling over her leadership during the height of the scandal. She previously told MPs she had “no idea” of the extent of the faults in the Horizon system — a claim now contradicted by documents submitted to the inquiry.
Government Complicity
The inquiry is also probing the role of successive UK governments, which owned the Post Office and were briefed regularly about Horizon. Ministers have been accused of “turning a blind eye” and prioritising public confidence over justice.
A compensation scheme is currently in place, but victims argue that money cannot reverse decades of harm.
A Moment of Reckoning
With the inquiry entering its final stages, there is growing pressure for criminal charges to be brought against those responsible for the cover-up.
Nick Wallis, the journalist who helped expose the scandal, said: “This was not a case of corporate negligence. It was systemic, institutional abuse — and those responsible must be held accountable.”
The full truth, long buried under layers of bureaucracy and denial, is finally being forced into the light. But for the hundreds whose lives were shattered, justice still feels painfully overdue.
Attached is a news article regarding the post office inquiry that maintained fiction
Article written and configured by Christopher Stanley
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