In 2019, when the Post Office advertised for a new CEO, they left out some key details. Nick Read, who took the job after Paula Vennells stepped down, told the Horizon public inquiry that he was unaware of an important High Court ruling or the massive IT project needed to fix the Post Office’s troubled Horizon system.
Back in 2018/19, ex-subpostmasters, led by Sir Alan Bates, tackled the Post Office in court. They successfully challenged the claim that the Horizon software caused unexplained shortfalls in accounts, which had led to many being unjustly blamed and punished. When Read stepped in, the Post Office was still grappling with the fallout of this case but wasn’t upfront about it.
At the inquiry, Read described the top brass at the Post Office as being in denial about the court’s impact. He said they appeared to be “living in a dreamland,” unaware of the damage done to subpostmasters by both them and previous leadership. When he joined, the focus among the board was on business metrics rather than addressing past issues or settling claims with subpostmasters. His early talks with then-chair Tim Parker were mostly about future plans, not the present crisis.
Read explained that Parker downplayed the significance of the court ruling, even suggesting it wasn’t the major public relations risk that the government thought it was. He also recounted being advised not to investigate the Post Office’s past practice of privately prosecuting subpostmasters, a practice that was under scrutiny after the court case. The company had wrongfully prosecuted hundreds, using data from Horizon as evidence against them.
This scandal first came to light in 2009, when Computer Weekly highlighted the struggles of seven subpostmasters affected by the Horizon system, marking the beginning of what would become the UK’s largest miscarriage of justice.