Fujitsu Europe’s boss has conceded the firm has a “moral obligation” to compensate sub-postmasters who were wrongly prosecuted.
CEO Paul Patterson revealed Fujitsu provided evidence to the Post Office that ultimately led to the unjust prosecutions, based on its IT software.
Patterson’s admission comes during ongoing discussions surrounding the widespread miscarriage of justice involving more than 900 sub-postmasters between 1999 and 2015.
The faulty Horizon software wrongfully implicated them in theft and false accounting cases.
It’s described as one of the most extensive miscarriages of justice in British history.
So far just 93 convictions have been overturned, leaving numerous victims awaiting compensation settlements.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Fujitsu’s global CEO, Takahito Tokita, issued a public apology for the huge impact on the lives of postmasters and their families.
This was his first first public comment on the matter.
The flawed Horizon system, developed by Fujitsu, prompted apologies from both Patterson and Tokita.
Patterson admitted bugs and errors existed in the system and that Fujitsu had actively assisted the Post Office in prosecuting sub-postmasters.
However, when pressed on why Fujitsu did not address the glitches in Horizon despite early awareness, Patterson confessed: “I don’t know. I really don’t know.”
The chief executive of the Post Office, Nick Read, joined Patterson in facing questions from MPs on the Business and Trade select committee.
They criticized Read for not providing crucial information about key events in the timeline.
Read could not specify when the Post Office first knew about the possibility of remote access to sub-postmasters’ Horizon systems.
Just three people have received full compensation
Neil Hudgell, a solicitor representing 400 directly affected people and 77 wrongly convicted sub-postmasters, said only three people had received full and final compensation.
Hudgell noted bureaucratic hurdles and certain requests from the Post Office causing difficulties for victims in securing financial redress.
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He said: “Routinely with the overturned conviction cases, it’s taken three to four months to get a response to routine correspondence.”
Alan Bates, the former sub-postmaster central to the ITV drama “Mr. Bates Vs The Post Office,” said the compensation was “bogged down” and the pace of processing claims was “madness.”
He shared his experience of a 53-day delay before receiving three straightforward questions from the compensation process.
During the committee session, Read acknowledged a “culture of denial” within the Post Office that contributed to delays in compensating victims.
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