Given the measured language that lawyers normally use this is incendiary stuff.
Wow Paul, thanks for posting this.
A truly astonishing scandal from start to finish…
I remember this. Hundreds of sub-Post Offices (such as typical small village post offices) were basically accused of postmaster or staff (if any) theft and demanded to settle huge sums when they had balanced correctly.
The Post Office may be bankrupted by the weight of awards that they would be obliged to pay but who cares. There is an easy answer.
Individuals at the top of the Post Office would normally be protected by professional indemnity insurance carried for themselves and/or the Post Office’s own business insurance against personal responsibility for errors etc. in the course of their duties. That’s assuming the Post Office was being run as a professionally run business of course.
The answer now is to call on the insurances held by the business and additionally to sue the individuals at the top of the Post Office personally. Their insurance companies should pick this up and that is why companies hold business insurance and usually sponsor professional indemnity insurance for their most senior officers.
I am not sure who owns Fujitsu or even if they are still going but that firm too and its officers would have been similarly insured at the time and provided made promptly, claims should still be able to be made on their insurers of the time.
If this is the case I recall reading about there were suicides amongst postmasters of these sub-post offices as well as early deaths due to heart attacks etc.
Since we are in France would anyone see a similar issue dealt with in a better way, or a worse way in France?
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IMO, those individuals should be barred from further service with state institutions and any honours awarded by the Queen should be cancelled.
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… and banged up with the key thrown away - including some of the “learned” judges including the loss of their pensions… absolute bastards!
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There has been an investigation undertaken by the BBC to do with this question and there is a series of podcasts on BBC Sounds.
One of the most appalling things I heard in an interview with one of the victims was that each individual Postmaster was told by the Post Office that no one else had encountered a similar problem.
Lying from start to finish.
Peoples’ lives have been destroyed by the Post Office, their lawyers and the Judges who refused to admit crucial evidence and they should be prosecuted in their turn and a proper amount of compensation paid to all these unfortunate Postmasters or their staff.
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Truly galling, especially the evidentiary aspect. The possible political shenanigans, well, that would be par for the course in any “too hot to handle” topic that reached the ears of government.
Unfortunately the same thing seems to be happening yet again, this time with those dealing with property affected by HS2.
If you listen to Farming Today you can hear the appalling tale of those in charge of dealing with people and land affected by HS2 lying and also misrepresenting the compensation to those involved.
This scandal needs to be blown wide open before we get another miscarriage of justice as with the Post Office.
It seems that those in charge of autonomous departments , yet fully owned by Government , seemed determined not to play to the rules and in this case, using the excuse that it is their duty to protect the taxpayer.
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I have e-mailed Nick Wallis who did the Pod Casts for the BBC on the Post Office Scandal and asked him to get in touch with Farming today and see if, together, they can stop this travesty happening to all those who are affected by their property being in the way of HS2.
Fingers crossed that something positive can come from it.
I have no interest in this other than to see justice done, especially with farmers who are not only losing their farm which may well have been handed down from generation to generation, but also their home and livelihood.
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and it can work Jane. Many times I travelled along the M62 between Manchester and Leeds only see the farm isolated between the east and westbound carriageways in the Pennines where they dug their heels in and refused to submit to the plans.
Farmers have a strong lobby and as much right to continue their business, indeed more right than the Tories with their vanity projects.
Won’t be much land left for farming before long - and they ain’t making any more…
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Given that the present government’s Brexit management seems to have a side-effect of causing many farmers to retire or declare bankruptcy, perhaps this is a rare example of their policies working in concert? 
a dangerous path for an island economy to tread me thinks…