Post office bosses still took postmasters to court knowing glitch could be to blame for shortfall

Post Office bosses knew a computer system glitch could be to blame for missing money but pursued prosecutions against staff anyway, documents have revealed.

Hundreds of postmasters were sacked, went bankrupt or were wrongfully convicted after amounts appeared to vanish from their tills.

But it later emerged that shortfalls in the accounts of local branches were the result of flaws in the Post Office’s IT system called Horizon. It has now been revealed that bosses at the Post Office were told Horizon could be to blame in 2011.

Some prosecutions had already taken place but managers still went ahead with up to 98 further cases between 2011 and 2014. 

A total of 960 convictions linked to the scandal are being reviewed in what has been dubbed the biggest miscarriage of justice in UK history. 

An official audit report by Ernst and Young, which was sent to Post Office directors, said it ‘has again identified weaknesses’ in the Horizon system.

It warned that some IT staff have ‘unrestricted access’ to postmasters’ Horizon accounts which ‘may lead to the processing of unauthorised or erroneous transactions’. 

Labour MP Rachel Reeves, who led an inquiry into the Horizon scandal with the Commons business committee, said: ‘It is very serious that the Post Office was sitting on information that told them – and could have told the courts and their sub-postmasters – that other people could access their systems.’

The new evidence, uncovered as part of a BBC Panorama investigation, shows Post Office managers ignored reports of multiple faults with the Horizon system.

Forty-seven convictions have been referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, a further 14 remain under review and around 900 are the subject of an independent investigation ordered by Post Office bosses. Boris Johnson has also ordered an inquiry.

One case sent to the Court of Appeal is that of Seema Misra, 44, from Surrey, who was pregnant when she was jailed for 15 months in 2010 for stealing £74,000. 

At her trial, the Post Office argued that computer errors could not be responsible for missing money.

But internal Post Office emails show its legal department was told about Horizon mistakes shortly before the hearing. 

One email references a bug that makes money ‘simply disappear’. The Post Office said it regrets not doing more to investigate the risk of shortfalls posed by bugs.

Panorama’s Scandal At The Post Office will be screened on BBC1 at 7.30pm tonight.