The Post Office finally launched an internal investigation into how it handled requests from a Post Office scandal campaigner, but this self-reflection came far too late to make any real difference.
At a recent public inquiry, a document from August 2024 revealed the internal review, dubbed Project Tiger, which looks into complaints from former subpostmaster Tim McCormack about how his freedom of information requests were processed. This stands in stark contrast to how the Post Office addressed his more serious claims nearly a decade ago.
At the hearing, they revealed an ad hoc board report detailing several investigations: Project Acer is probing a manager’s alleged order to destroy evidence linked to the public inquiry; Project Willow3 is examining former transformation chief Chris Brocklesby’s alleged misrepresentation of the options to replace Horizon; Project Alder looks into claims that contractors intentionally slowed the processing of subpostmaster compensation to prolong their contracts; and Project Phoenix investigates whether current staff were complicit in wrongful prosecutions of subpostmasters.
Then there’s Project Tiger, overseen by acting CEO Neil Brocklehurst. It specifically targets McCormack’s complaints about the handling of his freedom of information requests. McCormack’s activism was fueled by the efforts of Sir Alan Bates and the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA). Back in 2015 and 2016, he publicly accused the Post Office of serious misconduct, but the organization remained largely unchallenged and defensive at the time. In 2015, they even dismissed forensic investigators Second Sight in the face of increasing pressure from the JFSA.
If the Post Office, and its then-CEO Paula Vennells, had listened to McCormack’s warnings back in 2015, Vennells might have avoided the shame of her appearance at the Horizon inquiry. Instead, they dismissed McCormack as a troublemaker, calling him a “bluffer.”
In October 2015, McCormack sent an ultimatum to Vennells, which has now become public through the inquiry. Among the lesser-known details is the subject of that email, which addressed a software bug found in Horizon that was causing unexplained shortfalls at a branch in Dalmellington, Scotland. Armed with evidence, McCormack warned Vennells he would take the issue to the press if she didn’t acknowledge the bug and the harm it wrought on subpostmasters.
He laid out three options for her: admit the harm caused to many claimants by the Post Office, face the media, or wait for an inevitable judicial review that could expose her to legal repercussions.
A year later, McCormack alerted Surrey Police about a potential crime committed by a Post Office lawyer who failed to disclose crucial evidence during a theft trial of a subpostmaster. The lawyer was Jarnail Singh, the former head of criminal law at the Post Office, who later appeared at the public inquiry.
McCormack’s concerns were significant. He informed the police that during a 2010 trial at Guildford Crown Court, the prosecution did not disclose relevant material to the defense, highlighting that the Post Office, as the prosecutor, should have ensured all evidence was presented.
He referenced an investigation report from Second Sight, revealing that the Post Office was aware of flaws in the Horizon system back in 2010, which could explain financial discrepancies. The police responded, saying they were already following up on the Criminal Cases Review Commission’s investigation into the matter, but that they would reopen their case if necessary.
The wrongful conviction of subpostmaster Seema Misra was overturned years later, in 2021. Today, the situation is even more complicated, with a statutory public inquiry and a national police investigation into executives from both the Post Office and Fujitsu. The Metropolitan Police has been examining the actions of these staff members since early 2020, after a High Court ruling in 2019 confirmed that the accounting shortfalls which harmed subpostmasters were due to bugs in the Horizon software.
The story of the Post Office scandal first broke in 2009, revealing the struggles of seven subpostmasters due to Horizon’s flaws, leading to one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in UK history.