Alan Bates

UK police have opened a fraud investigation into the British Post Office over a miscarriage of justice that saw hundreds of postmasters wrongfully accused of stealing money due to a faulty computer system. The investigation is looking into potential fraud offenses, perjury, and perverting the course of justice. The Post Office used a defective computer accounting system called Horizon, supplied by Fujitsu, which wrongly showed that money was missing. The Court of Appeal quashed 39 convictions and a public inquiry into the scandal has been underway since 2022.

PM Rishi Sunak has promised that Post Office convictions would be quashed by Parliament within weeks, and said the government aims to complete compensation payments by the summer. Until this week, hundreds of sub-postmasters had been left in limbo even after a court ruling in 2019 blew open the scandal and ordered the Post Office to pay compensation. They became inadvertently the victims of a flawed software, a 1990s state contract worth an initial £1 billion to modernize the Post Office's accounting system.

A perky sensex has done wonders for the city's spirits that were plunged into an abyss darker than Mumbra during a power cut. Next month, Mumbaikars will have even more reason to grin as a host of international stand-up comics is coming to tickle our ribs.

Hundreds of UK Post Office workers were wrongly convicted of theft due to faulty software, sparking outrage after a TV drama. The scandal, spanning 1999-2015, ruined lives and is now under investigation. New legislation aims to overturn convictions, but legal concerns exist. While victims receive compensation, many await justice. No senior Post Office staff have been held accountable, despite resignations and apologies. An independent public inquiry led by a former high court judge is gathering evidence from postal workers, the government, the Post Office, Fujitsu and others.