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A document recently brought to light reveals that almost two decades ago, the Post Office and Fujitsu had established an agreement to address transaction discrepancies caused by bugs in the Horizon IT system used by sub-postmasters. This deal, made in 2006, outlined that Fujitsu was responsible for correcting errors or paying the Post Office a fee of up to £150 per problematic transaction if it failed to fix such issues. This evidence starkly contradicts prior claims made by the Post Office during numerous criminal prosecutions, where it denied the existence of any bugs that could lead to accounting shortfalls.
Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 sub-postmasters faced wrongful prosecution because the flawed Horizon system incorrectly indicated that funds were missing from their branch accounts. Many suffered financial devastation, with some imprisoned and others losing their livelihoods; tragically, a number also passed away. The widespread consequences have been labeled the largest miscarriage of justice in British legal history, prompting an ongoing public inquiry. Amid the extensive testimonies and evidence reviewed, the newly uncovered document illustrates that the Post Office and Fujitsu had a formal financial mechanism to manage discrepancies unbeknownst to sub-postmasters.
The document formally acknowledged shortcomings in Horizon’s ability to maintain accurate transaction records between branch offices and Fujitsu’s servers. Notably, it allowed Fujitsu to rectify errors or pay liquidated damages for faults attributed to its system. This arrangement also implicitly admitted that data on Fujitsu’s servers could differ from branch records and reinforced findings that the Post Office was aware that branch accounts could potentially be accessed remotely—a fact the Post Office had denied during key legal battles, including the Alan Bates case. According to Paul Marshall, senior barrister for sub-postmasters, “The Post Office conducted both the criminal trials of postmasters and the group litigation of 2019 on the basis that it knew of no substantial problems with the Horizon system,” yet the document “shows that in 2006 there was a very big, recognised problem with Horizon maintaining data integrity between Post Office branch offices and Fujitsu.”
One poignant example tied to this revelation is the case of Lee Castleton OBE, a sub-postmaster in East Yorkshire who faced Post Office legal action in 2006 to recover £25,000 allegedly missing from his branch. Castleton, representing himself, maintained that Horizon’s faults caused the discrepancies but lost his case, amassing £321,000 in legal costs and eventually declaring bankruptcy. Now suing the Post Office and Fujitsu for damages, Castleton condemned the newly disclosed document as “disgusting” and indicative of a two-decade cover-up: “It makes me feel physically ill to think they were doing that and not telling anyone… it’s time they were held accountable for all those actions.” The document corroborates accounts from whistleblower Richard Roll, a former Fujitsu employee who testified in 2015 that Horizon’s team sometimes manually adjusted thousands of transactions nightly, thus potentially avoiding payments to the Post Office.
Listed among corporate witness statements from Fujitsu’s European chief executive, Paul Patterson—in a form recently published but dated years prior—this document is expected to feature in upcoming parliamentary hearings where Patterson and Post Office chair Nigel Railton will be questioned about the Horizon scandal. Experts such as forensic accountant Ron Warmington have described the implications of this disclosure as “dynamite.” Meanwhile, Fujitsu has declined to comment due to ongoing investigations, and the Post Office has issued an unequivocal apology for the harm caused by the Horizon IT scandal, emphasizing its commitment to transparency, financial redress for those affected, and a meaningful restorative justice program as part of its ongoing organizational transformation
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