Post Office Manager Graham Ward delivers the revelation to the Post Office Inquiry that he NEVER found ANYTHING suggesting the innocence of subpostmasters accused of wrongdoing at their Post Office branches. This is despite his involvement in high profile criminal prosecutions of subpostmasters in addition to civil cases - most notably those of Noel Thomas and Lee Castleton. Whilst seeming to understand that his role requires both 'thorough investigation' and to explore 'all reasonable avenues' of enquiry he struggles when asked by Jason Beer KC as to what his understanding of both these terms are. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #GrahamWard

Senior Post Office Manager Graham Ward is WARNED not to Self Incriminate by Sir Wyn, chair of the Post Office Inquiry, prior to giving his testimony and evidence today. In an usual move compared to recent witnesses, despite all having such a right, Graham Ward is specifically warned about this right and the process to follow if he wishes to exercise his right against self incrimination. Could this be indicative of the Post Office Inquiry believing he may have some very interesting things to say considering he has held senior roles within the Post Office and has direct involvement in a number of subpostmasters cases? #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #GrahamWard

NO Post Office Investigation Changes Following Horizon despite the fact that it was the largest non-military project embarked upon in Europe at the time and the fact that it fundamentally changed how Post Offices up and down the country worked. Formal training didn't happen - on the system or seemingly any other topic and only informal work shadowing of someone using the Horizon system for half a day or so seemed to be the sum total of all training. There was no training on how Horizon produced data or even how to analyse the data it did produce. Questions about the accuracy of Horizon were not raised as part of investigations from memory. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #GrahamWard

Post Office Manager describes Casework Management at Post Office Security as essentially a function to make subpostmasters prosecution documents look PRETTY! Along with 'managing' two spreadsheets by entering data collected by others and literally handing off files from one organisation to an other the main duty of the role appears to have been formatting of documents and ensuring that page numbers were appropriately applied. Graham Ward tells the Post Office Inquiry that there was no checking of the substance or conduct of the investigation as that was the responsibility of their line manager. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #GrahamWard

Post Office Manager Graham Wards tells the Post Office Inquiry that the purpose of his 'performance' reports to senior Post Office management was due to the fact 'we had to JUSTIFY our EXISTENCE' when referring to the Post Office Security Team. He details how he managed staff when promoted to Casework Management including the stationary administrator and details a lot of people 'managing' things whilst being non-specific as to what that actually entailed day to day. He discusses performance related pay and bonuses awarded to the entire Post Office Security team based upon 'losses and recoveries' whilst performing their roles. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #GrahamWard

Post Office Manager Graham Ward tells the Post Office Inquiry that the Financial Investigation Unit, charged with pursuing subpostmasters that had been convicted following their prosecutions, had 'Too Many Cases' To Handle as it used the Proceeds of Crime Act to get orders taking money and assets of subpostmasters to cover alleged shortfalls identified using Horizon following Post Office Investigations. The 'floor amount' of £10,000 had to be increased to £20,000 when it became clear there were too many cases to pursue with amounts below this being considered too low a priority to pursue. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #GrahamWard

Post Office Manager Graham Ward tells the Post Office Inquiry that 'we weren't popular' with other parts of the Post Office business including subpostmasters despite his feeling that they previously had a good relationship. He identifies cultural change in 2008/9 when a new security manager joined the team and set out his vision. Despite him saying that the culture changed for the worse and people weren't happy he says that it didn't personally affect him but said he was 'glad to leave' the team when an opportunity for secondment came up in 2012. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #GrahamWard

Post Office Policy on timescales for subpostmaster investigations show that they wanted to investigators to close or prosecute accused subpostmasters within a MONTH! Questions about the thoroughness of the investigations against subpostmasters at the Post Office and whether all reasonable lines of inquiry were followed have been raised on numerous occasions and the timescales outlined in the Post Office Security team policy seem to place pressure on investigators to conclude cases within a set period of time rather than after an investigation would naturally complete. Therefore there is additional worry that cases against subpostmasters, some of which are complex, couldn't necessarily be thoroughly investigated whilst sticking to this 'must do' police from the Post Office. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #GrahamWard

The Post Office Inquiry continues to hear from Graham Ward, a former Post Office Security Manager as he reviews management documents that he was sent highlighting 'MAJOR Procedural Weaknesses' and Sloppy Documents without dates on. It appears from the documents that the Post Office wasn't concerned with addressing such major procedural weaknesses but instead doing their best to AVOID DISCLOSURE of those to subpostmasters legal teams so as not to undermine the prosecution cases the Post Office was bringing at the time. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #GrahamWard

Post Office Security Manager Graham Ward admits to the Post Office Inquiry that 'evidence not always gathered' to support the Post Office prosecution of subpostmasters, including essential ARQ (Audit Record Query) data that could identify who is alleged to have committed the crime. Earlier assertions that it would always be gathered in an Audit shortfall case seem to fall apart under continued questioning from Jason Beer KC at the Post Office Inquiry. Graham Ward's testimony that Horizon balances could establish a shortfall and that ARQ data from Fujitsu could establish who has caused it seems to leave any Audit case without the requisite ARQ data dead in the water... #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #GrahamWard

Post Office Security Manager Graham Ward seems to accept that he had responsibilities on him similar to that of a disclosure officer but wasn't actually the disclosure officer. When asked to identify who was the disclosure officer in the cases he handled he admits that it may have been him but 'he never saw himself in that role'. So, What Disclosure Officer!? He tells the Post Office Inquiry that he was aware of the duties of disclosure to accused subpostmasters as he has repeated to the inquiry before - but were such disclosure processes always followed by the Post Office? #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #GrahamWard

Post Office confusion over CRITICAL Fujitsu Message Store data could have prevented many prosecution cases and needless heartache to innocent subpostmasters if only Post Office managers had understood what it was or it had been explained to them properly by the company that created and generated it. Despite being part of an internal Fujitsu documented process as part of an ARQ (Audit Record Query) request that the Post Office regularly made, it's not clear that this was included in any Post Office processes despite it being mentioned in cases by witnesses. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #GrahamWard #Fujitsu

Lee Castleton's case was depicted by Will Mellor in the ITV Drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office and Graham Ward now discusses his involvement in the case that saw the Post Office being awarded over £325,000. The TERRIFYING testimony offered in the Horizon prosecution case of a subpostmaster includes an 'other events log' which has 'other data' in that no one put forward by Fujitsu as a witness for the case appears to remember the name of and the absence of Message Store data that was crucial to Lee Castleton's case and could have meant that not only did he not need to go through this, but all subpostmasters prosecuted after 2006 where there is now written proof that both Fujitsu and Post Office are now aware of. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #GrahamWard #LeeCastleton #MarineDrive

Post Office Manager Graham Ward tells the Post Office Inquiry that he would have escalated data concerns surrounding the Message Store data discussed in email between Fujitsu and the Post Office during Lee Castleton's trial (Marine Drive) had he been aware of them. As it transpires that he was aware of them, he goes on to admit that he should have escalated this concerns as they were 'very significant'. This seems like the best opportunity for the Post Office to discover what was going on and fix it at a relatively early stage of the Post Office Scandal in 2006 yet this opportunity appears to have been completely missed by the Post Office. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #GrahamWard #Fujitsu #LeeCastleton #MarineDrive

Post Office PRIORITISTED Prosecutions over Helping Subpostmasters, Graham Ward tells the Post Office Inquiry. Whilst discussing contractual limits between Fujitsu and the Post Office relating to ARQ (Audit Record Query) data that was vital in prosecutions of subposmasters he admits that it was on his mind and indeed complained about having to discuss restricting data requests from investigators with them to see if a 'shorter timeframe' was more appropriate. This could have led to vital data being missing from prosecution case files submitted by the Post Office. The most damning revelation however is that the the Post Office PRIORITISTED ARQ requests for prosecuting subpostmasters over requests from other areas of the business trying to help them. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #GrahamWard #Fujitsu #ARQData