An ex-chief IT architect of Fujitsu, Gareth Jenkins, provided incorrect testimony regarding flaws in the Post Office IT system, contradicting a report he had written several days earlier, thus leading to the wrongful imprisonment of a pregnant postmistress, Seema Misra. The BBC obtained Jenkins’ statement to court, dated 2010, where he stated, there were “no cases” where branch accounts could be changed without the postmasters’ knowledge in contradiction to his new report. The Post Office has expressed regret for the suffering caused to victims and is focused on backing the ongoing investigation.
Jenkins is currently being investigated by the Metropolitan Police for potential perjury. At least three Post Office attorneys were made aware of Jenkins’ position, but his report was not disclosed at Misra’s trial. Additionally, the report and an accompanying memo offer the clearest evidence yet that the Post Office and Fujitsu were aware of software bug details that could create uncertainties around the prosecution, keeping them hidden.
The Horizon bug, known as the “receipts/payments mismatch” issue, was creating discrepancies between the accounts postmasters saw and those on the Post Office primary servers and was impacting 40 branches. Jenkins suggested remotely altering data to resolve the bug. Still, instead, the group chose to use debt recovery or refunds to make balances match, especially because Jenkins’ proposed solution raises data integrity problems, could prompt questions of tampering and legality.
In conclusion, experts claim Misra’s trial was significant regarding the reliability of the Horizon system, and it could have resulted in her acquittal if Post Office lawyers had disclosed Jenkins’ report. Furthermore, many sub-postmasters faced charges since their chances of winning were minimal, as Post Office lawyers had all the information needed to secure their prosecution and sentencing
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More