Ex-Post Office boss says he didn’t realise company prosecuted own staff

A former Post Office boss has said he was “unaware” that the organisation had the power of prosecution as part of the Horizon IT scandal and assumed the police and director of public prosecutions (DPP) were involved.

Giving evidence at the Post Office inquiry on Friday, Alan Cook – who was managing director of the group from 2006 to 2010 – said it was “one of my regrets” he did not pick up on this at an earlier stage.

He told the Horizon IT inquiry: “I was unaware that the Post Office were the prosecuting authority. I knew there were court cases but didn’t realise that the Post Office in about two-thirds of the cases had initiated the prosecution as opposed to the DPP or the police.”

In his witness statement, Mr Cook added: “To the best of my knowledge the risk and compliance committee was not given any information or reporting, nor did it have any oversight of the prosecution of subpostmasters.

“As a result, I did not take any steps as a member of the Risk and Compliance Committee to ensure that the Post Office was acting in compliance with its legal obligations in relation to those prosecutions and civil proceedings against subpostmasters. I was not aware that they were taking place.”

He told the inquiry he did not ask questions on the matter until he saw an article in Computer Weekly in May 2009.

The inquiry was shown an email from a Post Officer PR officer in 2009 indicating to Mr Cook that there was “nervousness” about the Horizon system.

In response Mr Cook said: “My instincts tell that, in a recession, subbies with their hand in the till choose to blame the technology when they are found to be short of cash”.

Mr Cook said his response was “unacceptable” and one he will “regret for the rest of my life” and “was not in line with my view of subpostmasters.”

Counsel to the inquiry Sam Stevens asked: “Why was your instinct to think that subpostmasters, who alleged that Horizon caused shortfalls, were stealing from the Post Office?”

Mr Cook said: “Well that’s an expression I’ll regret for the rest of my life – it was an inappropriate thing to put in an email. It was not in line with my view of subpostmasters.”

Mr Stevens continued: “In perhaps an unguarded comment, you’ve put that your instincts were for it to effectively be that subpostmasters were stealing and then blaming the technology – does that represent your actual views at the time?”

Mr Cook replied: “No, but it was said.” Mr Stevens pressed him: “Why did you say it if it wasn’t your view?”

Mr Cook responded: “I had a friendly informal relationship with Mary Fagan and it’s just an email I shouldn’t have written but it was important to me that she understood exactly where we were at.

“She was very helpful to me, she was a sounding board and I was probably more open and frank with what I was thinking with her than many other people. That sentiment was expressed – what I wrote in that email was unacceptable.”

At the beginning of the day, Mr Cook used the opportunity to “most strongly” put on record his personal apology to subpostmasters for his part in the scandal.

He said: “I wonder… if I could just say before we get started, I’d like to put on record most strongly my personal apology and sympathies with all subpostmasters their families and those affected by this.

“As we get into the conversation, obviously, there will be an opportunity for me to elaborate but it just felt to me that was an important thing to say up front.”

At the inquiry on Thursday, former Post Office boss David Smith, who was managing director between April and December 2010, suggested he was partly to blame for the Horizon IT scandal because he “didn’t really reflect” on how the organisation prosecuted alleged crimes.

He said there were “inherent risks” involved in the prosecutions taking place in-house as opposed to by an independent authority.

The Post Office has come under fire since the broadcast of ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which put the Horizon scandal under the spotlight.

More than 700 subpostmasters were prosecuted by the Government-owned organisation and handed criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015 as Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon system made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.

Hundreds of subpostmasters are awaiting compensation despite the Government announcing that those who have had convictions quashed are eligible for £600,000 payouts.

This story is being updated.