The Post Office will finally look into a Horizon defect that left branch accounts with unexplained shortfalls, six years after it was initially warned about the problem.
But a forensic investigator who helped expose the Horizon scandal slammed the Post Office’s initial response to Computer Weekly questions about the issue, which he described as “arrogant and dismissive”.
Following a Computer Weekly article and the investigator’s letter to the Post Office scandal public inquiry, the Post Office will now look into the Horizon defect. It will also consult with current subpostmasters on the issue.
In 2019, subpostmaster Denis O’Donnell, who for decades ran a branch in Prestatyn, Wales, informed the Post Office of the error. This was at a time the Post Office was reeling after judgements in a High Court battle with subpostmasters, one which ended in a devastating defeat when subpostmasters proved the Post Office Horizon system was causing unexplained account shortfalls they were blamed and punished for.
The defect, which O’Donnell describes as “the part payment cash discrepancy issue”, could have seen Post Office branch customers receiving extra cash from subpostmasters without realising. A Horizon screen icon which has two opposite uses, allowing the subpostmaster to both take money and pay money, is at the centre of the issue.
It was June 2019 when O’Donnell first alerted the Post Office and sent letters to senior executives including former CEO Nick Read and Mark Davies, who headed up the Post Office’s communications department.
O’Donnell’s first letter stated that it was “regarding a possible systemic problem”.
No resolution
Following a second letter a month later, Davies replied, writing that the Post Office was looking into the problem. O’Donnell continued to write to the Post Office and was repeatedly told they were looking into it, but it was never resolved.
Computer Weekly revealed the issue to Ron Warmington at forensic investigation firm Second Sight, who helped expose the Post Office Horizon scandal. He said he found it “sufficiently serious” enough to write to the Post Office scandal public inquiry to report what he had learned.
When Computer Weekly contacted the Post Office about this in October, it said in a statement: “Following a review of our records and based on the information so far provided to us, we believe that we have identified that the former postmaster for a branch in Prestatyn raised a request for support in July 2019.
“This related to an issue they were having in July 2019 when it came to processing customers’ gas and electricity top-ups on the Horizon system, and our records indicate the mistaken use of a ‘part cash’ button on the terminal. Our records indicate that this particular issue was resolved a few days later.”
But O’Donnell said this was a misrepresentation of what occurred, and in fact, he was flagging a serious issue with the Post Office and not raising a support request as the Post Office suggested.
Warmington agreed: “I have reprimanded them for characterising his original call as one for support. If the Post Office carries on responding like that, it will convince nobody that it has changed, with the same arrogant dismissive communications department we’re all so tired of.”
Meeting last month
The Post Office met Warmington and O’Donnell last month, and said it was “grateful to have the opportunity to discuss this issue”.
It has invited them to visit the Post Office’s model office to “walk through” the steps that caused the issue. “We are also going to consult with current postmasters to understand if they have experienced anything similar and so we can better understand what impact this may have had in the network,” it said.
Warmington said: “I’m delighted that at last the issue raised years ago is getting senior attention.
“The Post Office put top people forward to spend an hour on the phone with us, where we went through what the issue was very carefully and clearly – there is no doubt that they now understand it,” he said.
Computer Weekly first exposed the scandal in 2009, revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffered as a result of the Horizon system (see below a timeline of all articles since 2009).
Also read: What you need to know about the Horizon scandal.