Thinking of buying a post office – really?
At the JFSA we are often asked about the merit of buying a post office after all that has happened, and has the situation improved?
As you would have seen from our website and also from media coverage, Post Office has made some disastrous decisions over the last two decades, and it is a shame that the business has been allowed to be run into the ground through unbelievable mismanagement and oversight failures unchecked by its owner, the government. Post offices and postmasters have always played a central role in communities but this once respected organisation has been brought into such disrepute by the way it has been treating Subpostmasters, that the brand has suffered irreparable damage.
At the JFSA we are often asked about the merit of buying a post office after all that has happened, and has the situation improved?
As you would have seen from our website and also from media coverage, Post Office has made some disastrous decisions over the last two decades, and it is a shame that the business has been allowed to be run into the ground through unbelievable mismanagement and oversight failures unchecked by its owner, the government. Post offices and postmasters have always played a central role in communities but this once respected organisation has been brought into such disrepute by the way it has been treating Subpostmasters, that the brand has suffered irreparable damage.
So can you trust Post Office now?
Since the court case was brought to an abrupt stop has Post Office changed?
There have many words and promises of how Post Office has changed, ‘seen the light’ and how things will be different in the future, but what has been the reality?
The court case exposed the fact that Post Office’s overriding priority is to protect the brand and its public image at any cost, even at the cost of the truth. Nick Read, the latest CEO of Post Office, recently stated, “We have to accept that it is the Post Office that caused what for some has been very deep pain. Absent the possibility of turning the clock back, compensation appropriate to that pain must follow”
During May 2021 the Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Postal Service Minister Paul Scully spoke with 3 of the 555 victims group who had brought the original legal action. They were so concerned by what they heard from these victims, they commented, “that the government would work with them and other victims to ensure they were quickly and fairly compensated for the devastation the Horizon scandal had caused to their lives”, and continued by telling them that, “We will work with you to get something that is fair and speedy.”
But what have they actually done? - Absolutely nothing, and worse than that, they have flatly refused to do anything more in the future. So the 555 victims group have been left in financial ruin having paid £46 million to cover the costs of the legal action that thousands of others are benefitting from, and they were only left with just over £10 million to share, when their true losses are closer to £350 million.
The truth is, that both Post Office and government are happy to make wild promises and then simply ignore them – however we all know it is deeds not words that really matter, and you only have to read the K Brown correspondence for an example of government's duplicity.
Nowadays most people would have heard something about the scandal that has been exposed by the 555 victims in the group litigation which has had numerous far reaching implications, such as:-
Since the court case was brought to an abrupt stop has Post Office changed?
There have many words and promises of how Post Office has changed, ‘seen the light’ and how things will be different in the future, but what has been the reality?
The court case exposed the fact that Post Office’s overriding priority is to protect the brand and its public image at any cost, even at the cost of the truth. Nick Read, the latest CEO of Post Office, recently stated, “We have to accept that it is the Post Office that caused what for some has been very deep pain. Absent the possibility of turning the clock back, compensation appropriate to that pain must follow”
During May 2021 the Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Postal Service Minister Paul Scully spoke with 3 of the 555 victims group who had brought the original legal action. They were so concerned by what they heard from these victims, they commented, “that the government would work with them and other victims to ensure they were quickly and fairly compensated for the devastation the Horizon scandal had caused to their lives”, and continued by telling them that, “We will work with you to get something that is fair and speedy.”
But what have they actually done? - Absolutely nothing, and worse than that, they have flatly refused to do anything more in the future. So the 555 victims group have been left in financial ruin having paid £46 million to cover the costs of the legal action that thousands of others are benefitting from, and they were only left with just over £10 million to share, when their true losses are closer to £350 million.
The truth is, that both Post Office and government are happy to make wild promises and then simply ignore them – however we all know it is deeds not words that really matter, and you only have to read the K Brown correspondence for an example of government's duplicity.
Nowadays most people would have heard something about the scandal that has been exposed by the 555 victims in the group litigation which has had numerous far reaching implications, such as:-
• It is the biggest miscarriage of justice in British legal history with 63 Subpostmaster convictions overturned to date and another 500 convictions under review, leaving Post Office facing numerous civil action claims for malicious prosecution. Yet despite the findings from the civil action, Post Office is still opposing many of the convictions being overturned in the Court of Appeal as, in Post Office’s view, and other than being found out, it has never done anything wrong despite the damning judgments against it.
• Part of the agreement the victims group made with Post Office when the group could not afford to continue the legal action was that Post Office had to set up a scheme for other Subpostmasters who had lost monies due to the flawed Horizon system. In order to meet this requirement Post Office set up the Historic Shortfall Scheme, which despite only being open to applications for a short time, resulted in 2600 Subpostmasters applying to recover shortfalls incorrectly taken from them over the years. So many have applied, that the government has had to throw Post Office a £320 million lifeline to fund these repayments. Yet Post Office refused to allow the original 555 victims who exposed the Horizon system flaws to enter the Scheme to recover the losses they had suffered.
• Judge Fraser who presided over the civil litigation trials had such concerns over some of the evidence presented by Post Office that he raised the matter with the Director of Public Prosecutions. This in turn has led to a Metropolitan Police investigation being launched into perjured evidence being presented in the privately brought Post Office prosecution cases which led to a number of Subpostmasters being imprisoned.
• After pressure from MPs and others, a Statutory Public Inquiry has now been convened which hopefully will examine who knew what and when. The issues the Inquiry will look into are to be published shortly and should the issue of the financial redress the 555 victims group failed to receive not be included, then the JFSA will not engage with it.
• Following a successful fundraising campaign, the JFSA submitted a formal complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman into the maladministration of the government departments which failed to carry out their oversight and management duties of Post Office over the years, and which subsequently ruined so many Subpostmasters and their families.
• Part of the agreement the victims group made with Post Office when the group could not afford to continue the legal action was that Post Office had to set up a scheme for other Subpostmasters who had lost monies due to the flawed Horizon system. In order to meet this requirement Post Office set up the Historic Shortfall Scheme, which despite only being open to applications for a short time, resulted in 2600 Subpostmasters applying to recover shortfalls incorrectly taken from them over the years. So many have applied, that the government has had to throw Post Office a £320 million lifeline to fund these repayments. Yet Post Office refused to allow the original 555 victims who exposed the Horizon system flaws to enter the Scheme to recover the losses they had suffered.
• Judge Fraser who presided over the civil litigation trials had such concerns over some of the evidence presented by Post Office that he raised the matter with the Director of Public Prosecutions. This in turn has led to a Metropolitan Police investigation being launched into perjured evidence being presented in the privately brought Post Office prosecution cases which led to a number of Subpostmasters being imprisoned.
• After pressure from MPs and others, a Statutory Public Inquiry has now been convened which hopefully will examine who knew what and when. The issues the Inquiry will look into are to be published shortly and should the issue of the financial redress the 555 victims group failed to receive not be included, then the JFSA will not engage with it.
• Following a successful fundraising campaign, the JFSA submitted a formal complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman into the maladministration of the government departments which failed to carry out their oversight and management duties of Post Office over the years, and which subsequently ruined so many Subpostmasters and their families.
It is highly doubtful that there is even one of the original 555 victims who brought the initial civil action against Post Office who feels they have now had justice and financial redress for what Post Office did to them. So returning to the questions of ‘has the situation improved’ and ‘can you trust Post Office now’, if you judge them on deeds and not words, then the answer is a very definite NO!
Despite the utterly damning judgments by the Court, the experience of the 555 victims over many years is that Post Office and government has little more than malice aforethought when dealing with the 555, determined to make them continue to financially suffer for daring to publicly expose their failures to manage and oversee Post Office in the way they had a statutory duty to do so. The evidence for that can clearly be seen in the way they have refused to pay the £46 million costs of the legal action the victims group had to pay because Post Office and government failed in their duties. Post Office has even refused to allow the victims group to enter its Historic Shortfall Scheme to recover the £8.5 million wrongly taken from them due to Post Office’s flawed Horizon system during the time they were serving Subpostmasters.
It is also doubtful that there are many, if any, of the victims group who believes that Post Office is either an honourable company, or is run by honourable people. So many of those who oversaw Post Office’s disastrous management leading up to and during the civil action are still in place, and even where there have been new appointments, these people have no real power, that lies with its sole shareholder, the government, where it always has been.
So, if you are thinking of buying a post office, or working for Post Office, you have to ask yourself do you really want to be associated with a firm where absolutely nothing has changed from its long ingrained Draconian approach to running its business. You only have to look at the comment of Court of Appeal’s Judge Coulson who, when Post Office applied to appeal the findings of Judge Fraser, stated ‘The PO describes itself as ‘the nation’s most trusted brand’. Yet this application is founded on the premise that the nation’s most trusted brand was not obliged to treat their SPMs [Subpostmasters] with good faith, and instead entitled to treat them in capricious or arbitrary ways which would not be unfamiliar to a mid-Victorian factory-owner’
And as the 555 victims will tell you, the way in which they are still being treated bears testament that Post Office has not changed in the slightest.
Despite the utterly damning judgments by the Court, the experience of the 555 victims over many years is that Post Office and government has little more than malice aforethought when dealing with the 555, determined to make them continue to financially suffer for daring to publicly expose their failures to manage and oversee Post Office in the way they had a statutory duty to do so. The evidence for that can clearly be seen in the way they have refused to pay the £46 million costs of the legal action the victims group had to pay because Post Office and government failed in their duties. Post Office has even refused to allow the victims group to enter its Historic Shortfall Scheme to recover the £8.5 million wrongly taken from them due to Post Office’s flawed Horizon system during the time they were serving Subpostmasters.
It is also doubtful that there are many, if any, of the victims group who believes that Post Office is either an honourable company, or is run by honourable people. So many of those who oversaw Post Office’s disastrous management leading up to and during the civil action are still in place, and even where there have been new appointments, these people have no real power, that lies with its sole shareholder, the government, where it always has been.
So, if you are thinking of buying a post office, or working for Post Office, you have to ask yourself do you really want to be associated with a firm where absolutely nothing has changed from its long ingrained Draconian approach to running its business. You only have to look at the comment of Court of Appeal’s Judge Coulson who, when Post Office applied to appeal the findings of Judge Fraser, stated ‘The PO describes itself as ‘the nation’s most trusted brand’. Yet this application is founded on the premise that the nation’s most trusted brand was not obliged to treat their SPMs [Subpostmasters] with good faith, and instead entitled to treat them in capricious or arbitrary ways which would not be unfamiliar to a mid-Victorian factory-owner’
And as the 555 victims will tell you, the way in which they are still being treated bears testament that Post Office has not changed in the slightest.