Fujitsu’s European boss told the Post Office he was concerned the company still sees itself as a “victim” four months ago, the Horizon IT inquiry has heard.
Paul Patterson wrote to Post Office chief executive Nick Read in May to express concerns over the “behaviour” of the business’s investigations team during a City of London Police investigation into a particular branch.
Mr Patterson said he wrote his letter to “raise serious concerns… that the Post Office continues to pursue enforcement against postmasters”, but Mr Read responded to say the company does not and will not undertake prosecutions against subpostmasters as a prosecutorial body.
Mr Read responded to the letter, saying there were “fundamental misunderstandings at (Fujitsu) about Post Office’s current-day culture and activities”.
The Post Office boss also told Mr Patterson Horizon data was not being used for “civil recoveries from postmasters”.
In his letter dated May 17, Mr Patterson wrote: “I am writing to you directly in order to raise serious concerns that have come to my attention which indicate that the Post Office continues to pursue enforcement against postmasters and it expects (Fujitsu) to support such actions.
“To be clear, (Fujitsu) will not support the Post Office to act against postmasters.
“We will not provide support for any enforcement actions taken by the Post Office against postmasters, whether civil or criminal, for alleged shortfalls, fraud or false accounting.”
Under the heading “criminal investigations”, Mr Patterson said: “We have become aware of a recent investigation by the City of London Police into a Post Office branch.
“The approach of (Fujitsu) is to co-operate with the police and any other third party exercising independent investigative, prosecutorial, regulatory or judicial powers.
“However, we are concerned by the behaviour of the Post Office investigation team on this matter.
“The team maintains an approach of Post Office as ‘victim’ and requires (Fujitsu) to provide a witness statement as to the reliability of Horizon data stating that without such statement the case will not progress.
“For the investigations team to act in this manner seems to disregard the serious criticisms raised in multiple judicial findings and indeed exhibits a lack of respect to the ongoing inquiry.”
Questioned on what his views were of the letter when asked at the inquiry on Tuesday, Post Office non-executive director Saf Ismail said: “I think Fujitsu are right in what they are saying.
“I find it disappointing that this was not discussed at the board.”
In his response dated May 30, Mr Read said: “In respect of enforcement, Post Office’s requests only relate to cases where our teams are supporting criminal investigations or prosecutions pursued by independent third parties, such as the police or the Crown Prosecution Service.”
He said the independent investigations could be initiated by a third party, postmasters suspecting criminal activity from staff, or the Post Office.
Mr Read continued: “In response to the specific case you raised, potential criminal activities were identified in the branch and Post Office therefore reported the matter to police.
“We have assisted with the police’s investigation, including providing supporting data from the Horizon system.”
Mr Ismail told the inquiry Mr Read’s response was “disappointing”.
He said: “It’s disappointing this letter went out the way it did.
“I think what this letter quite clearly shows is the lack of control and oversight within this organisation, where the CEO (chief executive) is implying a certain point.
“So ‘we’re not prosecuting’, yet you’ve got investigators doing investigating, and they are basically doing what we’ve already seen previously.”
In his original letter, Mr Patterson went on to discuss the topic of “pursuit of shortfalls from postmasters”, saying: “It seems the Post Office may be continuing to pursue postmasters for shortfalls in their accounts using Horizon data.
“We would have expected that the Post Office has changed its behaviour 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.”
Mr Read told Mr Patterson civil recoveries were halted by the Post Office in 2018 so Horizon data “is not currently being used for civil recoveries from postmasters”.
More than 900 subpostmasters were wrongly prosecuted and received criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015, as Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon IT system made it appear as though money was missing at their branches – with many still awaiting compensation.
The inquiry continues.
