DPS Computing

Post Office 'trusted for centuries' was DESTROYED in years concludes Hudgells, solicitors for many convicted subpostmasters, as he concludes the Phase 4 Closing statement at the Post Office Inquiry. He concludes that it's difficult to see whether this is retrievable for an organisation that 'knew the price of everything and the value of nothing' as they tore apart both subpostmasters lives and the communities which they served. The powerful conclusions lay bare the full disaster of the Post Office Scandal for those if affected the most and the enduring breakdown of trust between public institutions and the people they serve. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #Fujitsu #Hudgells

Post Office and Fujitsu Management FAILINGS Laid Bare during the Phase 4 Closing Statement to the Post Office Inquiry by Hudgells, the solicitors representing a number of convicted subpostmasters due to the Post Office prosecutions. Management failings at both the Post Office and Fujitsu stem beyond a lack of oversight but also wade into encouragement of the approach taken by employees at both organisations in the battle waged against subpostmasters and the dogmatic adherence to 'Horizon is robust'. We hear how reputation of both Post Office and Fujitsu - and the success of the Horizon project - were put above anything else. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #Fujitsu #Hudgells

Former Post Office Chair Henry Staunton, who was dismissed by Kemi Badenoch last month claims that the Government are STALLING Post Office Scandal Compensation to allow the government to 'limp into the election'. Kemi Badenoch has come out to deny the claims on X saying that she is discussing the issue with Government lawyers although it is interesting to note that she appears to now be suggesting his reasons for dismissal were 'concerns over his conduct' having previously said there were 'disagreements' resulting in his departure including his inability to sort out compensation for subpostmasters. #PostOfficeScandal #HenryStaunton #PostOfficeChair #PostOfficeNews #KemiBadenoch

Post Office Lawyer Jarnail Singh tells the Post Office Inquiry that 'I'm MORE Aggrieved Than Subpostmasters' who were wrongly prosecuted by the Post Office for Horizon shortfalls. He distances himself from 'crass comments' made in an update email that he sent claiming them not to be his words but merely an update he provided to the Post Office on behalf of Cartwright King, the legal firm who Post Office prosecutions were outsourced to. He denies any knowledge of any expert witness to testify in the cases about the Fujitsu Horizon system saying that he didn't think one had been found. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeLegal #JarnailSingh

Post Office Lawyer Jarnail Singh is confronted with an email where, in providing an update to a fellow lawyer about Post Office Prosecutions, that subpostmasters were 'jumping on the passing [Horizon] bandwagon' and that their Horizon challenges will 'melt away like midnight snow' saying that to stop prosecutions of subpostmasters would look like a lack of confidence in the Fujitsu developed Horizon system that was integral to the Post Office. Trying to distance himself again from the 'Horizon bandwagon' comments he says that this wasn't his individual view but a 'team view' at the Post Office. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeLegal #JarnailSingh #HorizonBandwagon

Post Office Lawyer 'Justified Executive Confidence' in Horizon following the prosecution of Seema Misra as he is sent a congratulatory email by the Post Office Executive team in new documents disclosed to the Post Office Inquiry. Jarnail Singh says that he was not aware, but would have expected there to be interest from Post Office Executives in the case he was helping them to prosecute but says that he isn't a very public person and didn't really like the congratulatory side of things as he characterises himself as an 'old school lawyer' with a desktop PC. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeLegal #JarnailSingh

Post Office Lawyer Jarnail Singh tells the Post Office Inquiry that the 'Horizon Bashing Bandwagon' email WASN'T my fault as he says that whilst he dictated the email to his secretary and it was sent in his name it's not the kind of language that he would use and agrees it would be 'at odds with his professional duties' to use such 'breathless' and 'emotive' language. Whilst he says Rob Wilson would have approved the email he was less inclined to name who might have dictated it to him saying that he's not at the Post Office Inquiry to 'name names'. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeLegal #JarnailSingh

Post Office Lawyer Jarnail Singh insists 'You're Asking The WRONG Person' as counsel to the Post Office Inquiry Jason Beer KC questions Jarnail Singh about the 'horizon bashing bandwagon' email that HE sent! Whilst struggling to identify who would be the right person to ask, or indeed anyone at all, he insists that the words in the email 'don't come naturally to him' despite the fact that he admits to not only sending it but dictating it to his secretary. The central claim from Jarnail Singh that the email he sent and dictated was dictated to him is examined along with the proposed evidence he has of this. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeLegal #JarnailSingh

Post Office Lawyer Jarnail Singh insists that 'I would have stuck to the FACTS' when testifying at the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry about his 'hurt' that he feels for subpostmasters who were wrongly prosecuted. This appears to be at odds with an email that he sent out to a wide distribution list entitled 'ATTACK ON HORIZON' where he claims that it isn't language that 'would come naturally to him' and that initially, the distribution list of was dictated to him as he didn't really know many of the recipients before going on to claim the the subject of the email was dictated to him. Whilst accepting that he dictated the email, he suggests that others specified the distribution list as well as the subject of the email and that he would have simply stuck to the FACTS of the case. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeLegal #JarnailSingh

Post Office Lawyer Jarnail Singh is accused of 'generating an air of detachment' during his testimony to the Post Office Inquiry where Jason Beer KC contrasts the words he is saying now with the statement that he provided to the Post Office Inquiry. The Post Office Lawyer is keen to point out that he was part of a larger organisation and that maybe the Post Office 'wasn't capable' of handling the prosecutions of subpostmasters in hindsight. Whilst apparently keen not to blame anyone else, the one mistake he identifies and takes responsibility for is that he relied too much on what others were telling him. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeLegal #JarnailSingh

Post Office Lawyer Jarnail Singh tells the Post Office Inquiry that he 'feels the hurt and pain' caused to subpostmasters by their private prosecutions by the Post Office which he admits were miscarriages of justice. He discusses the separation of the Post Office from the Royal Mail in April 2012 and how the Post Office Criminal Law Team reduced the number of senior lawyers from 8 to 1 whilst contracting out much of the prosecution work to legal firm Cartwright King. He says the loss of support staff meant that he felt he couldn't do the job that he was supposed to and identified examples of difficulty he faced in the new restructured Post Office Criminal Law Team #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeLegal #JarnailSingh

At the Post Office Inquiry, Jarnail Singh is questioned on his private practice that he lists on his CV as have ran since April 1996 leading us to ask the question if this is his only business interest and What are Jarnail Singh's Businesses? We take a look and provide a brief analysis of Jarnail Singh's private practice - J Singh Judge Solicitors Ltd and three other businesses he has been involved with as well as Bespoke Law Services that he listed he was a solicitor and director of between 2016 and 2018 following his deparature from the Post Office. #PostOffice #PostOfficeScandal #PostOfficeInquiry #JarnailSingh

Post Office Lawyer Jarnail Singh says his 28 year old Private Practice 'looked better on paper' as he is quizzed on his involvement listed on an extensive-sounding conveyancing business he says he owned and ran since April 1996. Defending his CV, he suggests that it became cost-prohibitive to have liability insurance from the year 2000 and that since then he was just being 'mentored' and 'referring clients' providing a service to the community. Jarnail Singh compares his private legal practice to the hobby of stamp collecting. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeLegal #JarnailSingh

Post Office Senior Lawyer Jarnial Singh is WITHOUT Criminal Law Experience when he joins the Post Office Criminal Law Team as he tells the Post Office Inquiry he was mainly involved in other work predominantly related to defence, although was involved in the preparation and research of some prosecutions as a legal executive before he qualified as a solicitor. Jason Beer KC analyses his CV that he attached to his witness statement and picks up the point that he says he was 'THE senior lawyer' in the criminal law team which he then clarifies meant that he was one of eight senior lawyers who reported directly to the Head of Criminal Law and the Post Office. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeLegal #JarnailSingh

Post Office Lawyer Jarnial Singh CUTS ACROSS Jason Beer KC as he corrects his witness statement to the Post Office Inquiry. Jason Beer KC requests multiple times that former Post Office Lawyer Jarnial Singh allows his to complete a question before delivering an answer. In addition to corrections to his statement, Sir Wyn Williams delivers Mr Singh a warning against self incrimination and confirms that he does have a lawyer at the Post Office Inquiry. The most significant correction is with his 'limited' relationship with Gareth Jenkins becoming much more substantial. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #JarnailSingh

Post Office Inquiry Tribute to Stanley Subpostmaster Tom Brown ahead of hearings on the 30th November 2023 after he tragically passed away without seeing justice for what happened to him due to the Post Office Scandal. Mr Tom Brown, who fought off armed robbers FIVE times from his Post Office and was awarded a Certificate of Valour was pursued for an alleged £85,000 loss at his Post Office through the criminal courts which ended up bankrupting him in 2010 with bailiffs seizing all his property and auctioning it to make up the alleged Horizon shortfall. Rest in peace. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #TomBrown

Post Office Manager Elaine Cottam INSISTS Horizon Only Had 'Teething Problems' during her testimony to the Post Office Inquiry, despite the fact that she herself, on at least three occasions, complained to the Horizon Helpline about technical problems before saying in a witness statement to court that all of Julie Wolstenholme's problems at the Cleveleys Post Office branch were down to general or usage of system problems. She again tries to deny facts that are noted in her statement and Jason Beer KC insists that he 'isn't willing to cover old ground again'. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #ElaineCottam

Post Office Manager Elaine Cottam Robustly DEFENDS Audit Process subpostmasters were put through including the analysis of their Horizon systems, saying that they looked at 'everything' whilst admitting that she didn't know what they did at all! In further revealing testimony to the Post Office Inquiry, she is shown an email chain between Post Office lawyers Jim Cruise and Mandy Talbot where they confirm that Elaine Cottam has a full history of the Horizon Helpdesk call logs after the Post Office lawyers raised that they needed a full audit trail after Julie Wolstenholme and Roger Harrison called the integrity of their Horizon system into question, indeed inviting in Fujitsu to have a look at the system themselves. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #ElaineCottam

Post Office Manager Elaine Cottam claims 'They (subpostmaters) ALWAYS Blamed Horizon!' as she delivers controversial testimony to the Post Office Inquiry. Perhaps, one might suspect, that Horizon was always blamed when it was at fault. And in the case of Julie Wolstenholme there seems to be ample evidence available, including from Post Office Manager Elaine Cottam's own complaints to the Horizon Helpline which were omitted from her witness statement to court. She persists in saying that False Accounting DID happen, without a shadow of a doubt, at the Cleveleys Post Office in one of a number of controversial statements that she makes. But where is the evidence? #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #ElaineCottam

Post Office Manager Elaine Cottam UNSURE why she's even at the Post Office Inquiry as we analyse her testimony where she's asked directly if her signature has been FORGED on the witness statement she provided to court in the Post Office prosecution case against Julie Wolstenholme at her Cleveleys Post Office. Elaine Cottam is adamant that she doesn't understand her statement, didn't write it and wouldn't have obtained call logs after Jason Beer KC discovers not only discrepancies between the call logs and the witness statement but the curious omissions of call logs where Elaine Cottam HERSELF complained to the Horizon Helpdesk about bugs! Mistake or foul play? #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #ElaineCottam

Post Office Manager Elaine Cottam witnessed Horizon Bugs at the Cleveleys Post Office after being called to support subpostmaster Julie Wolstenholme who was struggling with the system and indeed logging calls with the Horizon Helpdesk for help. Elaine Cottam called for an update on the Post Office and was promised callbacks that she never received and then lodged a complaint herself about stock units that were having mystery additions in them, whilst she was present, which meant that the Horizon system wouldn't balance and they couldn't create the weekly cash account. Despite the major issues, Fujitsu closed the call, without informing either Elaine Cottam or the subposmaster as they were already aware of the issue! 3 weeks later, the subpostmaster was suspended from her Post Office. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #ElaineCottam

Post Office Manager Elaine Cottam OMITS her OWN Involvement in the Court Case of a subpostmaster DESPITE having visited the branch and witnessed Horizon errors for herself as well as personally placing calls to the Horizon Helpdesk to help the subpostmaster with the issues they were facing with Horizon instantly following its introduction in the Post Office. Elaine Cottam says that she cannot recall having an involvement with the Horizon Helpdesk but is shown call logs from her own witness statement that include her as the caller on more than one occasion. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #ElaineCottam

Post Office Manager Elaine Cottam draws comparisons, or perhaps shows some confusion, when she compares a witness STATEMENT provided through a solicitor to a court to a LETTER that she may sign off as part of her managerial duties at the Post Office. It becomes increasingly clear that the witness statement wasn't written by herself and she potentially identifies two other managers who may have written it for her whilst suggesting that she may have signed it. She discusses the reasons for this being that she wouldn't have understood the contracts of subpostmasters nor the Horizon call logs that the the statement says that she analysed. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #ElaineCottam

Following the conclusion of Phase 4 of the Post Office Inquiry, I thought it would interesting to explore some of the questions that you've been asking in the comments and in messages to me. Today, I'm going to address the question of Why Did SOME Post Office Branches Have Horizon Errors whilst others appeared to be unaffected. Technical information has been in short supply at the Post Office Inquiry and in other released evidence from different sources - largely due to the lack of technical professionals that have been charged with conveying the situation with Fujitsu Horizon development and maintenance. However, there are two 'bugs' that stand out that I explain in the video. Firstly the 'timeout' bug and the 'multiple till' bug. I explore ways that these could be identified and the feasibility of these solutions. As always, thanks for all your comments - I promise I read every one even if sometime it takes me a little time to reply. And please keep your questions coming - I'll try to answer as many as possible! #PostOfficeScandal #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOffice #Fujitsu #Horizon #HorizonBugs

Post Office Inquiry Phase 5 and 6 Witnesses have been released by Chair Sir Wyn Williams as we take a look through the 68 witnesses that have been called and provide a brief biography. The inquiry says: "Phases 5 and 6 witnesses will include Post Office and Royal Mail Group board members; Post Office senior management; Post Office in-house and external lawyers; Fujitsu employees and senior executives; politicians and senior civil servants; campaigners; and independent reviewers" The list of witnesses in alphabetical order: Brian Altman KC Lord James Arbuthnot of Edrom Chris Aujard Alan Bates Tom Beezer Patrick Bourke Harry Bowyer Sir Vince Cable Richard Callard Mark Callister-Davies Alisdair Cameron Richard Christou Greg Clark MP Simon Clarke Alan Cook Tom Cooper Belinda Cortes-Martin (Crowe) Susan Crichton Adam Crozier Sir Edward Davey MP Christopher Day Anthony De Garr Robinson KC Andrew Dunks Martin Edwards Hugh Flemington Ben Foat Lord Anthony Grabiner KC Dame Moya Greene Ian Henderson Sir Michael Hodgkinson Sir Anthony Hooper Rod Ismay Margot James Gareth Jenkins Tony Kearns Allan Leighton Matthew Lenton Kay Linnell Jon Longman Sir Stephen Lovegrove Alwen Lyons Baroness Lucy Neville-Rolfe Jane MacLeod Ken McCall Neil McCausland Pat McFadden MP David Miller David Mills Patrick O'Sullivan Tim Parker Andrew Parsons Alice Perkins Mark Russell Lesley Sewell Jarnail Singh David Smith Martin Smith Susannah Storey Robert Swannell Jo Swinson Duncan Tait George Thomson Kelly Tolhurst MP Angela Van Den Bogerd Paula Vennells Ron Warmington Rodric Williams Andrew Winn #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #Government #Fujitsu #Phase5 #Phase5and6