UK Post Office’s Horizon IT system flaws drove dozens of sub-postmasters to consider suicide, says damning report
Post Office managers and supplier Fujitsu allowed erroneous data from the Horizon IT accounting system to be used to prosecute hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters, despite knowing it was flawed, the first part of a report on the UK’s biggest ever IT scandal has found.
The results of this mismanagement were devastating, with the report estimating that prosecutions by the Post Office were a factor in at least 13 suicides, with a further 59 people telling the Horizon IT inquiry that they contemplated taking their own lives.
As one sub-postmaster testified: “The mental stress was so great for me that I had a mental breakdown and turned to alcohol as I sunk further into depression. I attempted suicide on several occasions and was admitted to a mental health institution twice.”
What has yet to be determined – and could yet result in criminal prosecution – is why managers persisted with prosecutions for alleged fraud over so many years, despite ample evidence that Horizon was prone to serious errors.
*Hundreds of prosecutions*
Horizon was launched in 1999 by Fujitsu, which had acquired it as part of its takeover of ICL the previous year. Designed to automate sales, stocktaking, and accounting across 18,500 post offices, the system was deployed in two phases: what is now called ‘legacy’ Horizon between 1999 and 2010, and
