Knowing & admitting the holes in the Horizon system has a long way to go - 2010 internal lawyers knowing the prosecutions were based on dodgy evidence they ploughed on for another 4+ years at a rate of 1 per week! The "Fujitsu experts" in court said the system was solid and reliable.
What the did not say was Fujitsu had "back door access" to each & every sub Post Office accounts - they could, and did, enter or delete data without the permission / knowledge of the Postmaster.
According to Panorama they ploughed on as there was a need /desire to sell off the PO. The Horizon system was losing £1m / week in the processing - not necessarily "real money" as the software was so unreliable.
Paula Vennels the CEO & other Senior people knew of the holes and just carried on - hoping matters would improve for them. The internal PO investigation group setup a forensic investigation, from External Accountants, into individual post offices where there had been prosecutions. Just before the forensic accountants were due to published their findings the PO working group cancelled the contract. The findings were known but never revealed.
This has a long way to run for the PO & the Government - up to £1Billion in damages for false imprisonment, breakdown of families, families homeless, divorce, suicides, bankruptcies might not be enough. Malicious prosecutions and jailing of people when the PO & Fujitsu knew the failures of Horizon will increase the damages claims dramatically.
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