Journalists Rebecca Thomson and Nick Wallis cover the ongoing Post Office Horizon IT scandal which led to the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK legal history. Hundreds of people were wrongly criminalised, thousands lost money and when the Post Office and government realised what they had been doing, they covered it up. To date, no one has been held accountable. Made with thanks to Whistledown for their production support.
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35: Ep35 - Paul Scully MP, former Post Office minister
49:37
49:37
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In which Nick interviews the former Post Office minister about his experience of taking office in the weeks after the Bates v Post Office settlement, overseeing the establishment of the Post Office Horizon Inquiry and the various compensation schemes.By Investigating the Post Office Scandal
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34: Ep 34 - Where Did All The Money Go?
1:19:17
1:19:17
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In which Nick is joined by Mark Baker, former Postmaster and CWU rep, and Ron Warmington, forensic accountant, fraud investigator and Chairman of Second Sight, which conducted the first independent investigation of the Post Office's Horizon system.By Investigating the Post Office Scandal
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Nick and Rebecca interview Noel Thomas and Aled Gwyn Jôb, who with Sian Thomas have co-written a book about Noel's experience of being prosecuted by the Post Office for theft and false accounting. The book is called The Stamp of Innocence. It has just been published and currently only available as an e-book from Amazon, but there are plans to make …
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32: Ep 32 - Making Inquiries with David Enright
53:42
53:42
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Rebecca and I were delighted to record an episode with Howe and Co partner David Enright, a lawyer who represents more than 100 Subpostmasters at the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry. This is a proper wide-ranging chat covering Sir Wyn Williams compensation report, the Post Office disclosure debacle, bonusgate, restorative justice, whether ALL Post O…
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31: Ep 31 - Yet Another Compensation Hearing
1:24:48
1:24:48
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As both Nick and Rebecca were unable to attend the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry Compensation Hearing on 27 April, they thought it best to speak to some people who were. Sadly Rebecca was also unable to co-host the podcast so Nick brought in Professor Richard Moorhead from Exeter University (and member of the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board), …
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30: Ep 30 - Post Office Minister on launch of GLO scheme
27:36
27:36
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In which the Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake explains the new compensation scheme for Postmasters who were part of the High Court group litigation, declares the Historical Shortfall Scheme fit for purpose, says he wants people held to account over the Horizon scandal and appears ready to support a Duty of Candour law if it prevents something …
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29: Ep 29 - So That Was The End of Part 2 of Phase 3 of the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry
44:41
44:41
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In which Nick, Rebecca and special guest Varchas Patel pick over the recent evidence to the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry. One Fujitsu witness who worked on the Horizon Helpdesk described hearing colleagues shout about having 'another Patel scamming' on the phone again. We also discuss Nick and Varchas' experience of being trustees on the Horizon …
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In which Nick interviews Nadhim Zahawi's nemesis, Dan Neidle, founder of Tax Policy Associates. Dan has recently waded into the Post Office Horizon Scandal, and is pretty sure at least one compensation scheme for victims of the scandal is unfair. Dan is a great talker and entertaining company. He talks about his career as a tax layer, The Downfall …
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27: Ep 27 - The Sethis wait and wait and wait
49:05
49:05
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In 2002, Baljit and Anjana Sethi (pictured), were trusted Subpostmasters in Essex. They were was sacked by the Post Office over a £17,000 discrepancy in one of their branches' accounts. The Sethis had successfully run a Post Office branch for more than 20 years. Baljit told the Brentwood Gazette at the time it was not their fault, rather it was dow…
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Phase 3 of the inquiry begins with a statement on the running sore of Postmaster compensation (three schemes now running and counting) - we have news of Alan Bates, founder of the Justice for Subpostmasters' Alliance turning down an OBE - Nick has got his hands on the Altman Advice (or one of them, anyway) and oh yes - all the evidence from the inq…
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A day of tedious technicality and extreme misery combined to flatten any Christmas cheer around central London on Thursday 8 December. Both Nic and Rebecca attended a special compensation hearing to find out that most things are a mess and going nowhere slowly. For the Subposmasters in attendance it was a very frustrating day. The one man with the …
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Four more former Secretaries of State gave evidence in the final week of Phase 2 of the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry as did former General Secretary of the National Federation of Subpostmasters, whose evidence was jaw-dropping. Colin Baker MBE told a Subpostmasters' barrister she shouldn't be asking what his organisation was up to whilst the Post…
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Our first former Secretary of State - Stephen Byers - and the first woman - Dr Sarah Graham - give evidence to Phase 2 of the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry. Nick and Rebecca have parsed the week's testimony to present all the newsworthy tidbits to you. We also promised lots of links - so in the order in which they are mentioned in the podcast: Reb…
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Dave McDonnell becomes the most important witness of the second phase of the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry so far by explaining in detail exactly how the Horizon system did not and would not work, how he told his bosses at Fujitsu and how they ignored his advice, sidelined him and rolled out a financial system into the Post Office estate, leaving …
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This week Nick and Rebecca get under the bonnet of Fujitsu and watch various people chucking spanners around. They discover Fujitsu had a Special Horizon Laptop, that Fujitsu engineer Anne Chambers wasn't particularly happy about giving the evidence that helped bankrupt a Subpostmaster and that no one at Fujitsu cared much about Rebecca's 2009 inve…
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20: Ep 20 - Master interview: Lord Arbuthnot
1:03:21
1:03:21
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Before the summer Lord (James) Arbuthnot (or Baron Arbuthnot of Edrom to give him his full title) very kindly agreed to give up some time to talk to Rebecca and Nick about his involvement in the Post Office Horizon scandal. We finally caught up in October and have only just got round to publishing the final podcast. An hour wasn't quite long enough…
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19: Ep 19 - Dark secrets about Horizon's birth revealed
30:00
30:00
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Another week of evidence from the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry concludes with a burning question still unanswered. Who at the Post Office decided to start using data from an obviously unstable IT system to criminally prosecute its own subpostmasters? The underlings didn't seem to know, the senior execs didn't seem to care. Rebecca Thomson and Nic…
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Its part 2 of week 3 of phase two of the inquiry and three senior former executives from the Post Office and Fujitsu try to explain how they let the dodgy Horizon IT system out of the test labs and into the live Post Office estate where it wreaked havoc with Subpostmasters' businesses and lives. Rebecca and Nick pick over some of the key evidence a…
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Keith Todd, former CEO of ICL (owned by Fujitsu) and Tony Oppenheim, former director of Pathway (later Horizon, owned by Fujitsu) get to work on trying to explain to the inquiry how they let the Horizon IT system into the Post Office estate and how the Post Office were allowed to use data from that system to prosecute Subpostmasters for crimes they…
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16: Ep 16 - Inquiry digs in to how Subpostmasters were set up to fail
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18:30
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Like watching a Greek tragedy or a car crash in slow motion. Rebecca and I sat and watched as an IT disaster was picked apart in granular detail at the Post Office Horizon inquiry. Also Nick has an exclusive on a witness demand for 'immunity' from prosecution at the inquiry and the reviews are in! Notices from the opening week of False Accounts - a…
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15: Ep 15 - Inquiry phase 2 Wk 1: Tony Blair et al under scrutiny
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28:12
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A monster week in the Post Office Scandal - Tony Blair knew the Horizon IT system was a disaster (and ordered his minions to make it not so), the finger-pointing began in earnest, Post Office internal legal advice revealed for the first time, plus interviews with Flora Page and Lee Castleton. This podcast is powered by crowdfunding. If you can spar…
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14: Ep 14 - Inquiry Re-start Primer, David Enright interview, Crowdfunding launch!
38:41
38:41
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This is the episode to listen to if you want a 60 second précis of the Post Office Horizon scandal and want to get your head round the re-start to the Inquiry, which begins Phase 2 on Tuesday 11 October. Plus - Rebecca has an exclusive interview with David Enright from Howe and Co, the law firm representing the majority of Subpostmaster participant…
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13: Ep 13 - Turning the Post Office scandal into a play
58:30
58:30
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In this episode, Nick speaks to Lance Nielsen (writer and co-director with Dickon Tolson) and Suzette Pluck (producer) of False Accounts, a satirical play about the Post Office Horizon scandal. Lance and Suzette talk about the difficulties of putting on a play without funding, choosing which Subpostmasters' stories will be told and naming the chara…
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12: Ep12 - Deirdre Connolly - a Subpostmaster who still hasn't had any interim compensation
1:15:50
1:15:50
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Deirdre Connolly is a former Subpostmaster from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland. She was one of the 555 civil litigants who took the Post Office to the High Court and won. In 2010, Deirdre, who had successfully run her Post Office in Killeter without a problem for four years, was told she had a £15,000 discrepancy. She was suspended without pay o…
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11: Ep 11 - Former Subpostmaster Tim Brentnall on his secret trip to the Inquiry
1:22:47
1:22:47
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Tim Brentnall had his conviction quashed last year. Tim was the Postmaster in the tiny village of Roch in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Tim was in his twenties when he was convicted. Nick and Tim talk about the whole experience and Tim's reluctance to join the inquiry, his viral video when he gave his personal statement at the end of his hearing, and what …
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10: Ep 10 - Lee Castleton: Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance founding member
40:50
40:50
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Lee was there right at the beginning, has seen it all and has campaigned hard every step of the way. How hard is to be a campaigner when you've been sapped of your energy and you have no funds to fight? Lee should be celebrating victory after helping Alan Bates lead 500+ claimants to victory at the High Court in 2019, but the reality is very differ…
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9: Ep 9 - Being John O'Sullivan, Rebel with a Cause
38:18
38:18
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In this episode, John O'Sullivan, the recently elevated joint Subpostmaster of Borough Wash Post Office talks about his life working in his partner's Post Office for more than two decades, his childhood as a Jehovah's Witness and his Irish Rebel family history. John also explains his empathy for victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal and why he…
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8: Ep 8 - Paul Marshall on the Secret Chairman's Review and why he wrote to the DPP
1:02:48
1:02:48
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On 11 August there was a huge FOI drop thanks to the tireless efforts of campaigner Eleanor Shaikh. You can read and/or download that report here, or just listen to barrister Paul Marshall, Rebecca Thomson and Nick Wallis discuss it. Paul also tells us why he wrote to the Director of Public Prosecutions outlining his concerns that there has been a …
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7: Ep 7 - Interview with Dr Hannah Quirk, miscarriages of justice expert
34:21
34:21
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Rebecca is holiday, but despite this she has helped put together a stunning Sunday Times piece and recorded an interview with Dr Hannah Quirk, a reader in criminal law at Kings College, London. Dr Quirk used to work at the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) and has an impressive breadth of knowledge on historical miscarriages of justice. She i…
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6: Ep 6 - Richard Hawkes on his quashed conviction and Professor Richard Moorhead on legal ethics
39:08
39:08
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Rebecca has been along to the Court of Appeal to witness five more Subpostmasters have their convictions quashed. She spoke to one of them - Richard Hawkes - about his ordeal. Rebecca has also interviewed legal blogger and academic Professor Richard Moorhead from Exeter University who has opened up an entire field of study based on the Post Office …
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5: Ep 5 - Postmaster and CWU rep Mark Baker signs off
1:37:13
1:37:13
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A wide-ranging interview with Mark Baker, a long-serving Postmaster and CWU union rep, who has just announced his retirement. Mark posted a note on the CWU Postmasters facebook page stating that the Post Office has rendered the Post Office counter side of his retail business "totally unviable" due to what he calls "their scandalous remuneration sys…
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4: Ep 4 - The Statutory Inquiry's Second Compensation hearing
32:02
32:02
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Journalists Rebecca Thomson and Nick Wallis attend the Post Office Horizon Inquiry's second compensation hearing in Central London. Interviews with Flora Page, Seema Misra, Janet Skinner, Tracy Felstead and Parmod KaliaBy Investigating the Post Office Scandal
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3: Ep 3 - Statutory Inquiry Postmaster compensation hearing (at The Oval!)
18:15
18:15
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On 6 July 2022, the statutory inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal held the first (see the video here) of two hearings into the issue of proper compensation for Subpostmasters at The Oval cricket ground. Rebecca and Nick went along and ended up interviewing David Enright from Howe and Co (a legal firm representing more than a hundred Subpos…
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2: Ep 2 - More Postmaster convictions quashed at Southwark Crown Court
28:16
28:16
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On 9 June 2022, Gillian Harrison and Richard Ormerod won their appeals against their convictions at Southwark Crown Court. They became the 74th and 75th Subpostmasters to have their convictions quashed. Rebecca and Nick went along to watch it happen and speak to Gillian, Richard and representatives from their legal firm, Hudgells. Rebecca and Nick …
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1: Ep 1 - Introducing Rebecca, Nick and the Post Office scandal
31:59
31:59
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In which Rebecca, Nick and Silent Simon the Producer try to decide what the podcast should be called. And then they decide. And then Nick tries to explain the Post Office Horizon Scandal for people who may not be aware of it, and Rebecca talks about breaking the story back in 2009.By Investigating the Post Office Scandal
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