Sorry for the late update after last week!
On Friday late into the afternoon Post Office Ltd released a statement saying they were directly contacting 500 former Postmasters that it had prosecuted as it was likely they could be unsafe. The fact they are directly helping them should suggest (we hope) that the Post Office will not contest the majority of these. There are another 100 currently under review taking the total to 600.......yes you read that correct....potentially 600 more people wrongly prosecuted by this government owned entity that was out of control for 20 years. Maybe I have become a sceptic but to release this on a Friday afternoon right in the middle of important election results, you would think the Post Office were trying to ensure it didn't get much media attention! So when we add that to the 45 already overturned convictions we are getting awfully close to the 736 people they prosecuted since 1999. Now the Post Office keeps using a narrative that is extremely frustrating...'it is sorry for historical failures'. Yes some of the cases go back years, but what we have to remember right up until 2019 Post Office was adamant these Postmasters were thieves and tried every trick in the book during the civil litigation to cover up their past, going as far as trying to recuse (sack) the judge for bias. Then we have the Court of Appeal two weeks ago where they contested the majority of the cases on ground 2 of 'an affront to the public conscience'. They are still in denial, although maybe finally this is starting to turn. I know I will accept that to be the case when the Post Office makes a proper genuine apology in the media to all those affected and makes one in writing to every individual. Then we will understand they are being sincere, right now it is nothing but a PR exercise to recover their ruined reputation and limit further damage. Here is an article in yesterdays Daily Mail about this :-
Last Friday as most of you now know I had a meeting with Post Office CEO Nick Read. Now I have to say he appeared genuine and had a real urge to get this mess sorted out once and for all as he agreed with me that the Post Office can never move forward as a business until the scandal is sorted for every person involved. We spoke about the business as it stands now and I wanted him to understand this is not a revenge mission, people simply want justice and what they deserve. We all understand the business must be able to move forward eventually. Then we discussed my ideas for compensation with regards to the 555 group that initially exposed the Post Office and he agreed there has to be a way of ensuring that we all feel a sense of justice and more needs to be done. I set out clearly how my idea of obtaining a loan from HM Government and repaying out of future profits on a sliding scale depending on the performance of the business. I also pushed on the idea that as the government keep telling us that the Post Office is an 'Arms Length Body' and makes its own commercial decisions, then he should approach the ministers and ask am I the CEO of the Post Office and able to make my own commercial decisions! That way he should be able to use this commercial decision to compensate our group. He said he would hold a board meeting and approach the government and discuss my ideas whilst keeping an open dialogue directly with myself going forward. All seems positive so far....
As you know in my last update I mentioned minister Paul Scully refused to change direction with regards to the current 'Whitewash Inquiry'. As with everything we have had to do it appears the only way we ever get to the truth and what needs to be done is through the courts......and that is exactly where we are headed again. The government has until tomorrow to overturn the current inquiry and make it a statutory inquiry with full terms of reference to compel witnesses to give evidence, cross examine them and find out who knew what and when. It will also be able to look into the compensation agreements and what more needs to be done. Emily Kent Smith from the Sunday Times covered the article today below :-
Also last Friday Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with Postmasters via zoom to hear first hand the harrowing stories. He appeared genuinely shocked and disturbed at what has happened and promised that the government must get fair and speedy compensation to all those affected. Lets hope this will be done!
We have the full support of Lord Arbuthnot who continued his calls for an immediate investigation by the Metropolitan Police into Post Office directors for potential perverting the course of justice.
Here is a link to a few of the recent articles by Karl Flinders at Computer Weekly and Nick Wallis on his own site :-
https://www.postofficetrial.com/2021/05/540-more-subpostmaster-convictions.html
https://www.postofficetrial.com/2021/05/so-who-did-it-peer-calls-for-police.html
Don't forget you can pre-order Nick Wallis' book on his site....I can't wait to read it later this year!