The Post Office ignored a subpostmaster’s calls for help when she experienced accounting shortfalls while using its ECCO+ system.
The software, which was used in Crown branches (larger branches owned and run by the Post Office) and hundreds of sub-Post Offices (small branches owned and run by subpostmasters) in the 1990s, had flaws that could have caused unexplained losses that users were blamed for.
In a recent meeting with former subpostmaster Janette Armour, as part of its review of ECCO+, the Post Office revealed it has copies of letters she sent in the early 1990s when she was struggling to balance her branch accounts using the software. At the time, her branch in Scotland was losing hundreds of pounds every week.
Concerns over ECCO+ were raised by the National Federation of Subpostmasters (NFSP) in October 2024 on the back of revelations in the Post Office Horizon scandal, as well as emerging stories related to the Capture system and its flaws.
ECCO+ was used in Crown branches in the 1990s, and there were also hundreds of branches converted to sub-Post Offices, which used ECCO+ at some point, according to the NFSP.
During last week’s meeting with the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), the Post Office revealed it had copies of Armour’s correspondence about ECCO+ from the 1990s.
“I knew I wasn’t making a mistake. I knew there was something wrong,” she told Computer Weekly.
Armour was a subpostmaster in Scotland. From 1977, she worked in Crown branches and was promoted to the Post Office headquarters in Glasgow, before buying a sub-Post Office branch near the city with her husband.
They were later asked if they would be interested in taking over a Crown branch in East Kilbride, which they did in 1994. ECCO+ was used in the branch, which had six counters.
She estimates that she and her husband personally covered at least £16,000 worth of shortfalls a year, for two-and-a-half years.
The losses took their toll, and Armour and her husband were eventually advised to sell their smaller Post Office branch. After losing more money, they had to sell their Crown branch as well. On the last day at the branch, it was revealed to Armour that even Post Office staff knew ECCO+ was problematic.
She said the software didn’t work properly from the day it was installed.
NFSP CEO Calum Greenhow, who attended the meeting with Armour, said there was a recognition that she had been harmed. “They actually have evidence that Janette was writing to them, telling them that it was a problem,” he said.
A Post Office spokesperson said: “We are in contact with the Department for Business and Trade about ECCO/ECCO+, and there is still very limited information, so it is important that any issues are raised so they can be properly reviewed. We encourage anyone who believes they may have been affected by accounting problems linked to ECCO/ECCO+ to come forward to the Department for Business and Trade, or, if they prefer, the NFSP.”
A government spokesperson said: “We are grateful to Mrs Armour for sharing her story and issues when using the ECCO+ system. We will continue to work with the Post Office and postmasters to understand the wider implications of ECCO+ and encourage anyone who had similar issues to come forward.”
Former Post Office worker and campaigner for subpostmasters Rupert Lloyd Thomas said: “Sooner or later, both the Post Office and DBT are going to have to accept that ECCO+ was defective.
Lloyd Thomas, along with Armour and Greenhow, will meet the DBT and the Post Office to discuss ECCO+ further.
He told Computer Weekly: “ECCO+ was chronically unreliable, it was a cheap and nasty system. I had a lot to do with work trying to get that system fixed,” said Lloyd Thomas, who worked at the Post Office for 27 years.
But there are significant gaps in the evidence so far, as the bulk of users – Crown branch employees between 1992 and 1999 – are not part of the NFSP, which has been seeking information.
