On Friday 2nd October 44 of the 47 cases that are being reviewed by the Court of Appeal were told the news that Post Office Ltd would not be contesting those appeals. As you can understand this was a very emotional day for those who have suffered at the hands of this out of control Government owned organisation. This means as we understand it, Post Office will be contesting 3 of these cases.
There are a further 900 cases under review for wrongful prosecution, ensuring as I have always said that this is the biggest miscarriage of justice in UK history.
As things stand the Post Office Horizon Shortfall scheme is to be challenged in the High Court by one former Postmaster stating that it is both unfair to have a cut off date and be able to exclude a certain section of claimants.
Also recently the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy announced it was changing its review into an Inquiry and appointing retired High Court Judge Sir Wyn Williams. Paul Scully MP and Alok Sharma MP are still trying to brush this scandal under the carpet as quickly as possible. They have told us that because it is being chaired by an ex High Court Judge it will now be called an inquiry.....the thing they fail to point out and make clear is that regardless of what they call it, it will still be a non statutory inquiry. This means it will not have the power to compel witnesses to give evidence, it will have no cross examination of witnesses to ensure they are telling the truth (they have a habit of misleading even a current sitting High Court Judge in the recent litigation), nor will it be discussing any potential remedies of compensation so that those who have wrongfully repaid money to the Post Office can have it reimbursed.
Alan Bates Chair of the JFSA (Justice for Sub Postmasters Alliance) re-reiterated his stance to boycott this review/inquiry and the majority of Postmasters will be doing the same. He said 'This is a pointless exercise, it's utterly futile, another whitewash. We certainly will not engage in this inquiry. It's just an internal review, it's got nothing to do with redressing what they've done in the past.'
Second Sight will also not be taking part in this whitewash inquiry. In the meantime our complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman is still in progress thanks to your kind generosity and support and I will update in due course on its progress.
Lord Arbuthnot is currently trying to get a special select committee inquiry setup into the Post Office Horizon Scandal, you can read more below :-
Here are a few more of Tony Collins recent articles :-
There was an extraordinary publication by journalist Nick Wallis recently which was released in two parts, just when you think you cannot be any more shocked by the twists and turns of this huge saga something else comes along to do just that :-
Part 1 - https://www.postofficetrial.com/2020/08/trouble-up-north-of-england-pt1.html
Part 2 - https://www.postofficetrial.com/2020/09/trouble-up-north-of-england-pt2.html
We simply cannot and will not stand by while the government holds a pointless whitewash review/inquiry that will not hold those responsible to account nor discuss ways to reimburse the group for the 46 million pounds we had to spend to obtain the evidence BEIS should have been doing over the last 2 decades. The fight is well and truly on!