article_snippet.sent: The Post Office failed to properly investigate why money had gone missing from branches before launching court proceedings against subpostmasters, a report revealed yesterday.
article_snippet.sent: Many were sacked, stripped of their savings and even jailed after cash shortfalls were recorded at some branches – despite claims that a faulty IT system was to blame.
article_snippet.sent: The Post Office asked forensic accountants Second Sight to investigate a faulty IT system in 2012, following complaints from dozens of subpostmasters who said forensic accountants Second Sight had been wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting when cash shortfalls were discovered.
article_snippet.sent: The Post Office failed to properly investigate why money had gone missing from branches before launching court proceedings against subpostmasters, a report has revealed (file picture)
article_snippet.sent: The Post Office also accused The Post Office of failing ‘in many cases’ to identify ‘the root cause of shortfalls’ before starting civil or criminal proceedings.
article_snippet.sent: The review said some criminal cases brought by The Post Office were ‘motivated primarily’ by a desire to recover the money and did not appear to be supported by sufficient evidence.
article_snippet.sent: The review went on to claim that The Post Office had failed to provide the accountancy firm with the documentation they required, and had ‘terminated’ they contract before they finished they research.
article_snippet.sent: a report has sparked fresh calls for a full independent inquiry into the computer system used by postmasters after a report reported concerns that ‘in some circumstances Horizon can be systemically flawed’.
article_snippet.sent: Responding to a report, the Post Office said the review had repeated ‘complaints made by a very small number of former postmasters, as well as a number of assertions and opinions’ – but had not offered any new evidence to support the claims.
article_snippet.sent: complaints made by a very small number of former postmasters, as well as a number of assertions and opinions pointed out that ‘complaints made by a very small number of former postmasters, as well as a number of assertions and opinions have received 150 complaints about the IT system since the IT system opened a complaints system two years ago, a number ‘complaints made by a very small number of former postmasters, as well as a number of assertions and opinions said represents a ‘tiny fraction’ of the 500,000 people who had used the IT system
article_snippet.sent: A spokesman said: ‘In none of Post Office’s own work, nor through any of Second Sight’s work, has any information emerged to suggest that a conviction is unsafe.
article_snippet.sent: ‘This is another damning report which reiterates the serious concerns of many postmasters.
article_snippet.sent: Part of the problem throughout has been the bullish behaviour of the Post Office towards postmasters who feel that they are helpless victims of a computer system gone wrong.
highlights_snippet.sent: The Post Office failed to properly investigate why money went missing .
  