The public inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal has revealed that a group within the organization wanted to dismiss the independent forensic accountants investigating the system. The current CFO, Alisdair Cameron, testified that there was a view among directors that the investigation should have been conducted by a professional accounting or law firm instead of Second Sight. He stated that there was unease with Second Sight after their interim report highlighted issues with the Horizon system in 2013. Cameron identified several executives, including general counsel Chris Aujard, communications head Mark Davies, and former CEO Paula Vennells, as being in agreement with shutting down the investigation. Second Sight was officially dismissed in 2015, and their final report later revealed instances where subpostmasters were prosecuted without considering Horizon system errors as the cause. It was also disclosed during the inquiry that Aujard failed to provide evidence to the Criminal Cases Review Commission that could have identified miscarriages of justice earlier. Additionally, Davies boasted about his political connections and his attempts to prevent scrutiny of Horizon issues by Members of Parliament. Cameron, however, did not believe that these efforts had a significant impact. The Post Office Horizon scandal was first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009.
Deepening of the Horizon scandal reveals clique within the Post Office
