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The village shop and Post Office

had come up for sale.

Someone suggested that
I would be the perfect person

to take it over.

I started my first job as a postman back in 1965,

and in 1994,
I took over the Post Office.

I passed my interview so, yeah, I was given the position.

And everything was perfect.

We had a group of pensioners

who would come in to get
their pension every week.

Very much part of a community.

- 28p please, love.
- How much?

You do get to know your locals.

We'd have a good banter,

a good laugh
with all the customers.

It was really good.

You're not only their Postmaster,

you were also
an adviser to people.

Two?

It was lovely,
you felt like you were

actually the heart
of the village.

- Morning, with you in a minute.
- No rush.

It was idyllic.

I felt that I'd managed to get myself a good position.

As a Postmistress,
it is not easy.

The idea was it would be my retirement business.

I thought I was gonna spend the rest of my life there.

But I didn't know what was ahead of me.

I went through hell.

It was diabolical.

Something had
to be done about it.

Look, Alan!

Look what we did,
look what you did!

Should the Post Office bosses go to prison, too?

No. No, no.

Hit them in their pockets.

Hit them in their pockets.

That's what you want to do.

That's... that's what's
going to hurt them.

This is the story of a saga that began nearly 25 years ago.

We were not mad, were we?

Dealing with the Post Office has been more difficult

than dealing with the mafia.

It's like fighting
a steam roller.

A group of Subpostmasters from all over the UK

fought to expose
one of the widest

miscarriages of justice
in British legal history.

We want answers now,

to know who's actually
done this to so many people,

and why.

There begins the long chain of accounting,

every ha'penny of every
transaction accounted for.

The Post Office was established in 1660.

And had always used a paper
and pen to balance the books.

But in 1999,
management introduced

something completely new.

A computer system
called Horizon.

It was the biggest
IT rollout in Europe.

The Post Office connected
40 thousand terminals

across the country
to one central hub.

An engineer arrived.

He screwed it on the desk
and I asked him what it was

and he goes, "That's Horizon."

It's going live shortly,
you'll hear all about it.

"Great," I was really enthusiastic.

I'd been involved in developing
bespoke software packages

where I'd worked before,
and I was all for it.

Basically, I never had
a problem balancing it

'til that was installed.

And then a couple
of months after that

I had a very big shortfall
at the end of the week.

It said I was minus
two thousand pounds.

Just overnight,
eleven thousand pounds

of stamps had gone missing.

I suddenly found I had 6,000 pound shortfall

and I couldn't understand
where that had gone.

That was a ridiculous amount.

There was no way of going back and checking stuff,

like you did with the paper,

cause once you pressed
that button it had gone.

I rang the help desk,

and they told me
to do various things,

which doubled the shortfall
to minus 4,000 pounds.

When I rang the helpline,
I was told that there was

nobody else
having these problems.

Oh, yes, the helpline
was telling you,

"Nobody else has got a problem,"

"You're the only one,"

"You're the only one
this is happening to."

"You're the only one,"

that's what they kept saying.

Then I started feeling
like I was going mad.

I knew I wasn't
computer-literate,

but I wasn't stupid either.

In the end,
you were totally confused,

and nothing was done.

Under the terms of their contracts,

the 20,000 Subpostmasters
were liable for any shortfall,

whatever the cause.

When it got to about nine thousand pounds short,

I told my parents
and my husband, and I said,

"Can we remortgage
and put the money in?

Cause I've got no idea
what's happening,

but I've got to make it good."

My mum went down
to the building society

and drew it out,

an we put it into--
the money into the safe.

Every week I was
putting money in myself.

So, we basically went through
the cash until it all ran out

to try and make up
the balance every day.

It was just
up and down, up and down.

It was never, ever right.

And on the end of the month

when we had to do
the main balance,

that's when it all
used to come out, like...

Where's this money gone?

And the amount kept growing,
so I then didn't say anything.

I kept quiet and let it grow
to 36 thousand pounds,

terrified of what
was gonna happen.

In North Wales,

one Subpostmaster
took a different approach.

I had a thousand
pounds of shortfall,

and I've never been
accepting the figure

that Horizon
had thrown up each week.

Because I always felt
that if I cleared it,

I was accepting
the Horizon system's figures.

And I wasn't
prepared to do that.

Eventually they
got round to telling me

I had to do it, or else.

And I said, "I won't do it.

Not until I have access
to the system."

And eventually they decided
just to terminate my contract

without giving me any reason,

and that was it.

So, they walked off
with my life's savings,

and they decided to give
my Post Office to somebody else.

Horizon just created
a whole batch of worry,

not just for me,

but for Subpostmasters
all over the country.

I should probably clean
at least until I'm 70-ish.

I'm resigned to the fact that
I only have the state pension,

and unless I sell my house,
I need to keep working.

The Post Office used their sweeping powers

to bring private prosecutions
against their own employees.

In 2003,
they went after Jo

for the money
they said she'd stolen.

I was originally
charged with theft,

and I pleaded not guilty,
and we almost got to trial,

and they offered up
a plea bargain

at the eleventh hour, and said,

"Well if you plead guilty
to false accounting,

we'll drop the theft charge,

provided you repay the money."

That meant Jo was forced to borrow

in order to pay back
the 36 thousand pounds

the computer said was missing.

I could only raise thirty
thousand pounds on the house.

So, we had a village meeting,

and I had
to explain to everybody

that I was in trouble
in the Post Office,

and someone put their hand up

and they said,
cause it was November,

they said,
"Well, couldn't Jo

have an early
Christmas present?"

And the moment I told them

I thought they were all
gonna think I'd stolen money,

and they didn't
it was quite the opposite,

and, um, yeah.

It was very humbling.

And literally
thousands of pounds

went through the letterbox.

I think we'd reached it
in about two weeks.

And, yeah.

- Wow.
- My village.

When she went to court, the village showed up again.

I just looked at the judge, and he goes,

"Well, I'm not considering
a custodial sentence."

Well, I was literally--

just the tears were
streaming down my face.

Jo was sentenced to a twelve month

supervision order.

But there were other people

who's ordeals left
an even greater mark.

We had a lot
of happy memories here.

Especially when the children
used to come off the bus,

we used to look forward
to seeing them after school.

They used to come running
across this road, you know?

I enjoyed being here as well.

Would've handed it over to them.

A lot of happy memories.

But they all got broken.

In 2009, the Post Office charged Jess

with the theft
of five thousand pounds,

and her face was splashed
across the local papers.

Family members actually went round to the shops,

local shops, and gathered
as many papers as they could.

It was also in one
of the Punjabi papers as well.

So, basically
everybody read that story

and pointed fingers.

We had somebody come in
and spit on the floor as well.

We had car windows broken.

You know, they did try
and traumatize us, really.

I would get this feeling
that everybody else

is thinking that,
"She's a thief."

And thinking about it
day and night, day and night.

I just wanted to end my life.

I'm showing you the box.

We can cross quickly.

And this is where
the Post Office was.

Noel Thomas became a postman at the age of 17.

In 2005,
when his nightmare began,

he'd only ever worked
for the Post Office.

Here we are.

We're by the box
which was the Post Office

that my wife and I ran for...

36 years.

You know,
it was a betrayal, wasn't it?

When we lost this.

At half past seven
there was a knock on the door,

and there was a lady
and a gentleman in the door,

and said they were
Post Office auditors,

and so I let them in,
made them a cup of tea,

and told them straightaway

that I was about
52 thousand pounds down,

so all hell let loose.

Noel was arrested,

and questioned
at a police station.

She was just, "Where was the money,

where was the money?"

And, "What did you do with it?"

You know, it was
really aggressive.

Then the Post Office did to Noel what they did

to many other Subpostmasters,

they offered
to drop the theft charge

if he agreed to plead
guilty to false accounting.

I remember me telling him,
"Will he keep me out of jail?"

And he said yes.

But unfortunately
when I went into court,

the judge came
to his sentencing words,

and he said "Nine months."

And he sort of paused,

and I waited
for a suspended sentence,

but he said "Take him down."

I'd been a counsellor,
I'd been a Postmaster,

I'd been a postman,
and highly thought of.

All of a sudden it was
all taken away from me,

like taking a mat
from under your feet,

if you like.

It was bloody horrible.

My journalistic life
has been dominated by this.

I mean, it's the biggest
story I've worked on.

It's probably the biggest
story I'll ever work on.

In 2009, the story hadn't hit the press yet.

Social media was in its infancy.

Even though many Subpostmasters
were being prosecuted,

each one of them thought
they were the only one.

But that was
about to change.

This particular article
began because we were

contacted by a Subpostmaster
about his problems.

Often when you get
contacted by a single person,

it's very hard
to stand up a story.

But one of my former colleagues,
an alarm bell rang in his head,

and he thought,
"I've heard this before."

And I think it was
four years earlier,

he'd been contacted
by Alan Bates,

who'd had the same problems.

Then they started
to build up a picture.

People having
the same problems,

people being told the same thing
from the Post Office,

which eventually led
to them gathering information

about four other Subpostmasters,

and doing this first story.

But we were so worried
about legal action,

we didn't actually
publish it for a year.

This was the response from the Post Office.

"The Post Office Horizon system
is extremely robust.

It is regularly tested
and scrutinized,

and we do not have any
complaints from Subpostmasters."

That was an outright lie.

We knew of seven
postmasters who had complained,

and also we know that
computers have problems,

especially complex systems.

Suddenly, Subpostmasters
that had problems

were seeing the story
and contacting each other,

which then started the campaign.

That's the seven from Computer Weekly,

then there's two
that came in via our website.

But where are all the others?

So, we thought, "Let's see
if we can get people together.

Let's see how big
the problem actually is.

Somewhere central.

- Fenny...
- Compton.

We didn't know if anyone was gonna turn up,

but slowly but surely
people turned up.

We all sat round, in a circle,

telling our stories.

And you almost felt embarrassed

about having to say,

"Oh I'm Jo,
and I've been done

for thirty six thousand pounds.

But I realized,
like, oh my god,

we're all exactly the same.

That's when the story's

jigsaws started coming together,
if you know what I mean.

And we'd all had our lives
completely tipped upside down.

People had been losing houses,

cashing in their pensions,

they'd been borrowing
money off of relatives,

marriages were splitting up...

We all looked like we'd been in a war,

and just weary with the stress
that we'd been put through,

and the shame of it.

It was diabolical.

But that's when we knew

something had
to be done about it.

And that's when we picked Alan Bates as chairman.

That was really
the start of everything,

and that's where the JFSA,

Justice for Subpostmasters
Alliance was born.

It was like a switch got turned,

and the Post Office
was the enemy.

They'd gone from this
trusted brand to a monster,

and it was like,
we are gonna get them.

This is the view I had
of him most of the time.

I mean, most mornings
this is what he's doing.

And as you can see,
he's still in his dressing gown.

For the past twenty years,

Alan and his partner Suzanne

have had their lives
dominated by one thing.

The whole of this post office issue

has turned into probably
the worst unpaid, full-time

job you can imagine.

I'm gonna do the cat,

and I'll have her sitting
down on the carpet here,

looking up at him
as if to say,

"Well when are you
gonna finish," you know?

"When are you gonna
take a break?"

Because you were hearing stories of such distress,

a family in ruin...

So, you couldn't give up
working on something like this

because it develops
a life of its own.

And it wasn't just me,

other people were
chasing their own MPs.

The good thing about being an MP

is if you contact someone

like the chairman
of the Post Office

and say I'd like to meet
you to talk this through,

they tend to respond.

- Uh, Mrs. Hamilton?
- That's me.

James Arbuthnot.

Thank you for coming.

He came out to the shop and met my parents,

and he was just
a thoroughly decent guy.

There are two other cases
in my constituency alone.

- Wow, really?
- It's very odd, isn't it?

I thought, "There's something obviously not right."

And, so, I went to see

the then Chief Executive
of the Post Office,

Paula Vennells.

Paula Vennells was hired by the Post Office in 2007.

By 2012, she had worked
her way up to the top job,

and used her in-house PR

to highlight her commitment
to Subpostmasters.

It was Paula Vennells

who suggested
that what we needed

was forensic accountants
to go into the allegations.

And we said,
"That's exactly what we need."

Who would you recommend?

Ron Warmington runs Second Sight.

I was Head of Investigations
for one of the world's

biggest banks for many years.

And now I'm meant to be retired.

The only reason I'm not retired
is because of this case.

Ron's investigation was paid for by the Post Office itself.

But obviously we had very serious concerns

that it was going to be
a bit of a whitewash.

So Alan and the MPs

brought in their own
top forensic accountant.

Kay Linnell flew at me like a tigress.

I don't doubt
your paper qualifications,

I have them here in front of me,

but I see nothing
to persuade me

that Second Sight
is remotely capable

of producing a truly
independent report.

Clearly suspecting that
either we were hired

to do a whitewash,

or that we'd be
hopelessly incompetent.

Probably she thought both.

The involvement
with the Post Office

started with Jo Hamilton,
my local subpostmistress.

Kay volunteered to help the Subpostmasters.

I had no idea
how long it would take,

but I knew
we had a room of people

who had lost everything,
or were losing everything.

And people were
still being prosecuted,

almost on a daily basis.

And I knew we had
to do something

to try and stop the tide,
or raise the profile.

She clearly was exactly the person we needed.

Having had that meeting
with Ron and Ian,

which I suspect
they will remember,

I was satisfied they would
do an independent job.

Ron's team began their investigation in 2012.

At that time,
the Post Office continued

to prosecute Subpostmasters.

Basically, I was told
I was going to get

two years in prison.

In the West Midlands, Jess was convinced

a faulty pin pad
on her Horizon terminal

had caused the shortfall.

And she pleaded
not guilty to theft.

But the case dragged on
for three years.

I went to numerous courts, up and down the country.

In Wolverhampton Crown Court,

the judge said,
"It was the pin pad."

And the Post Office said

"The pin pad's been
taken away for repair."

So, the judge said well,

"If it's gone for repair
it was faulty."

That's when it all got
thrown out, basically.

By then, the damage had been done.

The stress that we've been through,

the trauma
that we've been through,

the lying to, bullied,

it all mounted up,
and I ended up in the hospital.

I went to commit suicide.

I even tried to commit
suicide in the hospital.

Jess was so ill, the doctors decided

to treat her with
electroconvulsive therapy.

All I remember is they used to put this, like,

a helmet type thing on my head.

And the shock waves were
going through my brain.

So I had,
I think I had fourteen

treatments like that.

After that,
I lost all my memory.

I don't remember
anything from my childhood.

I couldn't sleep
unless I had sleeping tablets.

Put me on numerous medication,

which I'm still on today.

And it's all down
to the Post Office.

During Ron's investigation, it became clear

the Post Office had some
serious questions to answer.

There were documents which looked extremely suspicious,

very poor investigative
processes that were directed

blatantly at simply
recovering assets

by trying to get the easiest
conviction possible,

which generally
was false accounting,

using as a cudgel,

bluffing that they had
a theft case.

I'm pretty used to being able
to detect crooks.

But when I really dug deeper,

I didn't find any evidence
of theft at all.

We didn't know whether the investigation would work,

but the very fact that they

had access
to Post Office's data,

erm, seemed quite promising.

And at that time,
we did understand

that Post Office did actually
want to get to the truth.

I felt we were getting
somewhere.

Ha, little did I know

how long the journey
was gonna be.

Remote access to the system

was always a huge concern.

And the reason why was it
meant

that someone else could
be accessing your accounts

on your counter
in your Post Office,

and you did not know about it.

When the Post Office rolled out their new computer system,

every subpostmaster's computer

was hard-wired
to a central hub.

This was located at the
headquarters of the company

who designed and managed
Horizon, Fujitsu.

Post Office were quite
adamant that no-one else

could ever access the systems

or do anything
like this at all.

And that was something
that we wanted

Second Sight
to prove had occurred,

or how it had occurred.

I went to Fujitsu headquarters with the intention

of helping and looking
at the system,

and how we accounted for

bureau de change within
branches.

Er, Michael Rudkin
to see George Delph.

That was the purpose of my
visit.

I arrived, as scheduled,

about ten o'clock
in the morning.

- Cheers.
- Went into reception.

Mr. Rudkin, George Delph, hi.

Within a few minutes,
my chaperone arrived.

I was really taken aback by
the number of security doors

that we had to pass through.

I was encouraged to enter into
the boiler room by my chaperone.

And in doing so,
I then recognized

to the right-hand side of me,

there's two Horizon terminals
on this workbench.

One of the guys not happy
with my presence

gets up and walks
out.

My chaperone said,

"This is my covert
operations team

and my covert operations room."

He proceeded to enter into
this particular account,

and he started, er,
altering figures,

which I said to him,
"Is this real-time?"

He says,
"Look, I'll just prove it."

He says, "I'll alter
the Euro figures

in this branch's
accounts."

You're inside some
subpostmaster's Horizon,

and he doesn't know?

In total disbelief, I said,

"Are you sure you can alter
these figures in real time?"

And he said, "Yes."

I said, "Well, for your
information..."

I've been telling my members
for years,

no-one else has access
to their branch accounts.

"And here you are proving
that you've got remote access."

At which there was
an immediate

look of disdain on his face,

and then ushered me out,

and more or less thrown out
as though I was...

..a thief.

I said to Michael, "Your story
is really, really interesting.

But Post Office, of course,

will ask for evidence
to support what you're saying.

So we need to find
the visitors book."

The so-called visitors book
that I signed,

ironically, is the only visitors
book that's disappeared.

"So, Michael, you need to have a look

through your email records
to see if you can find

the invitation that came
through to you,

so get to it, Michael, I need
it, and I need it quickly.

I had a telephone conversation
with Ron.

I said, "I have the evidence.

Are you in front
of your computer?"

He said, "Yes."

I said, "Well,
I'm pressing send now." I did.

The reply came back.

"Oh, my effing good God.

They are now going to become
a hostage to fortune."

The day after Michael's visit to Fujitsu,

Post Office officials
paid him a visit.

What come as
an even greater shock

was the orders that then came
into my bedroom at 8:30

that following morning, sat on
the edge of my bed, and said,

"You've got a £44,000 shortage
in your office."

My wife, Susan,
who's managing the branch,

ended up being convicted

with 300 hours community
service,

electronically tagged
for six months.

She had to live through
and endure that experience.

In 2013, Second Sight published their initial findings

With Ron's report
in the public domain,

Post Office management
changed their approach.

Paula Vennells rang me up to say,

"What we're proposing
is a mediation scheme

between the subpostmasters
and the Post Office,

with a senior judge
as the mediator.

And that will be able to get to
the bottom of all these cases."

And I said, "Well, that sounds
right and proper.

Let's go ahead with that."

Alan put forward 150 cases for the new scheme.

The whole process was
only meant to take

X amount of months in total.

It was running into years.

You're supposed
to go to mediation

with a willingness to settle,

but it appeared that the Post
Office was sending

two lawyers who turned up and
said,

"You're out of time
to make a claim,

it's over six years old, forge

I think they were actually
uncovering the real truth

of what had been going on,

and they didn't want to come
forward with it.

The Post Office has spent public money on a mediation scheme

which they themselves
have set out to sabotage.

In Westminster, James Arbuthnot

was working hard to keep
the case in the public eye.

And they've broken their word
to Members of Parliament

in so many different respects
that it is frankly bewildering.

If you could just
introduce yourself

for voice
transcription purposes.

Paula Vennells, Chief Executive
of Post Office.

And then Paula was called in to face MPs.

People do not like appearing in front of select committees

because the select committee may
get to the bottom of things

that the witnesses may prefer
that they didn't.

Before the hearing, Paula Vennells asked colleagues

to help clarify what she
should say.

Here we go.

A copy of her email has since come to light.

"Urgent: Accessing Horizon."

"Dear both, your help,
please, in prep for the SC,

the select committee hearing."

"Is it possible to access
the system remotely?"

"We are told it is."

That's obviously the question
she's being warned

she's gonna have to answer.

"What is the true answer?"

"I hope it is that
we know this is not possible

and that we are able
to explain why that is."

"I need to say no,
it is not possible

and that we are sure of this
because of xxx."

This is a system
that works well,

and it works well for the vast
majority of people.

For those it doesn't work for,
we are doing our utmost.

I've got Nadhim, and then I've got Brian...

The MPs wanted to know why the Post Office had been obstructive

during Second Sight's
investigation.

Paula, why don't you
give those files over?

- What's the problem?
- Erm, so, I...

I think the point I want
to pick up first, if I may...

No, just... No, answer my question first.

Why won't you give Ian
Henderson those files? Why?

We have... As far as I'm aware,
Mr. Zahawi,

we have shared
whatever information

was appropriate
on every single--

That's not what Ian Henderson's saying.

It is the first time
personally I have heard that.

You're the head of the organization.

Will you provide it,
yes or no? Simple answer.

I'm not prepared, on behalf
of the Post Office...

Right, I've got my answer, so you won't...

No, you haven't got your
answer,

you haven't heard a yes or no.

I'm simply saying
that at the moment,

I'm not able to answer
your question.

It was pointed out to her time after time

that she was in charge and
the decisions were with her.

But it just seemed
to wash over her.

Well, this sounds like a shambles to me.

You came in here,
opened by saying

the system's working
beautifully.

You now realize why you're in
front of the committee,

is that right?

The system... The reason...
Ian said...

I just couldn't understand why, even after that,

she didn't take things on board
and actually be honest

and own up and actually
try and resolve it,

which she should've done
far earlier.

I'm very sorry that I can't
answer that, it's..

When I listened to the evidence from Paula Vennells

I realized what we
were gonna be up against,

and just what it looks like.

I have been told that
we're providing information.

It looks like it's a massive
corporate cover-up.

Then, a few weeks after the select committee hearing,

the Post Office
changed their approach again.

Post Office dynamited
the mediation working group

and fired everybody.

I think at that stage,

she decided it was preferable

to cover up the injustice

and to allow these
subpostmasters

to go to the wall.

And I think that's shocking.

We were growing information, we were growing data.

For more than ten years,

Alan Bates and his team
of campaigners

had been carefully
gathering evidence bit by bit

against the Post Office.

Because we had those documents,

there was a possibility then of
starting some sort of litigation

in the civil courts
against the Post Office.

If we could find a legal firm

to take it on board for us.

The headlines this morning.

A report has criticized
the Post Office for sacking

or prosecuting subpostmasters

without establishing the cause
of cash shortfalls

at their branches.

Driving into work, normal day, into Leeds,

and I heard a BBC radio
programme.

If the cash recorded by the computer system

does not match up with the cash

that's actually
held at the branch

then they are held
responsible for it.

I thought to myself, there may be something

we could do about this to help,

because it didn't sound right,
so I contacted Alan Bates.

I explained the case to him,

I showed him
the type of evidence

that we had at the time.

And I explained we had
no money at all,

but we felt there
was a case there.

So I needed to weigh up
whether or not

we could raise the necessary
litigation funding.

There are specialist funders who
are willing to take the risk,

but only if there
are enough of you.

Because otherwise we knew
that Post Office

would outspend us
and we would lose.

The only way that we were

gonna be able
to break through this

and uncover it
was a full-scale group action.

Group litigation orders
are used

when you've got very poor
claimants

and they've got enough
similarity in their cases

that you can literally fund
one case

and solve a lot
of people's problems.

It was the only way,
and to do that,

we needed a much larger group
of postmasters.

How many would you need?

At least 500.

The meeting kicked off a nationwide search

to find subpostmasters

who'd had problems
with Horizon.

Eventually, 555 people pursued

a group litigation order
against the Post Office.

The case against Post Office was very much to expose

the way individuals had
been mistreated in there.

The lack of information that was
available from Post Office.

The flaws in the system
they'd never owned up to.

The denial that had happened,

the bullying that had gone on.

The abuse of individuals,

the way that they'd
raided people's houses.

The way they'd been so
high-handed,

God almighty,
didn't give a damn,

they're Post Office and they can
do what they want--

that's what we wanted
exposing.

Alan had found the lawyers,
they'd got the funding.

And we were on.

Alan and the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance

finally took the Post Office
to court

to seek financial redress.

Well, I went four days
after my mum died.

She'd said to me,
"Please don't stop."

And she said,
"I'll be with you.

Wherever you are,
I'll be with you."

And, erm, yeah, four days
later, I went to court.

Among Alan's group of 555 subpostmasters

were people whose lives had been
devastated by the Post Office.

Many had been bankrupted,
prosecuted or imprisoned.

Gathering enough evidence
at the beginning of the case

was challenging because
Post Office had the evidence,

which meant we were having
to build the case

with one arm tied behind our
backs.

But during the case,

the Post Office was forced
to disclose evidence

they'd always claimed
was irrelevant.

So, what we've got here is a known-error log.

So what this records is the
fact that there were

internet problems,
network problems,

which were causing the error
in the system,

which in turn were
messing up the figures

and causing a financial
discrepancy.

This particular example
showed that

the transaction
that had gone wrong,

needed to be manually
corrected.

They had teams
and teams of people

doing it all day long,
year on year.

Quite often in litigation cases,

in court cases,
lawyers will say,

"Well, very rarely are we ever
gonna find a smoking gun."

These were smoking guns.

Not just one smoking gun,
multiple smoking guns,

which prove to us
and prove to the court

that there were multiple
problems in the system,

there had been from day one
when it was installed.

And that was why Post Office
lost the court case.

At the end of the court hearings,

Justice Fraser delivered
a 330-page judgement

outlining his findings
on the Horizon system.

On the day the judgement was handed down,

our side was totally crammed
with people.

The other side of the court,

there were just two people.

They knew what was gonna
happen,

they knew which way this
judgement was going to land,

and it did.

Mr. Justice Fraser's Horizon Issues judgement:

"This approach
by the Post Office

has amounted, in reality,

to bare assertions
and denials...

..that ignore what
has actually occurred.

It amounts to
the 21st-century equivalent

of maintaining
that the Earth is flat."

Good old Justice Fraser.

The judge said there seemed
to be a culture of secrecy

and excessive confidentially
within the Post Office.

We couldn't be more happy

with the judgement
from the court.

This has been the result
of many years' work

to achieve justice
for over 550 people.

It was overwhelming,

it was utterly, utterly
damning of Post Office

and it just vindicated
everything

we'd ever said about them.

The win was one of the best
days of my life.

The civil justice system in
the UK had got to the truth.

But the win came at huge financial cost.

Although the Post Office agreed

to pay £57.5 million
in damages,

after legal costs,
the subpostmasters were left

with around £20,000 each.

But the civil court win
did enable the subpostmasters

to appeal
their criminal convictions.

These subpostmasters have not only

had their convictions quashed,

but they've been exonerated
by the Court of Appeal.

I'm not a criminal any more, I'm a victim.

Oh my god!

To date, 93 out of 736 subpostmasters

have had their names cleared.

The sun was shining, and I was free.

- How do you feel now?
- Very happy.

At last, you could go home

and tell people
you were innocent.

That emotion will...

It was like lifting
that big rucksack

with rocks on
your back for years,

and getting rid of it.

- Thank you, all,
- Let him through, please.

You know, you could just throw it away.

It was such a big, big relief,

'cause the Post Office did a
lot of damage, really, to him.

It's something that
we couldn't fathom

that was gonna happen to him.

I didn't have this many people at my wedding.

But I'm seeing my dad coming back now,

you know, bit by bit.

So we are really grateful,

you know, that we've had
this chance to see that,

'cause not many have.

Yay!

Well done, well done.

We've made it.

God's got me through everything.

I just thought I wanted
to bring you here

to show you as
well.

I've built myself up.

I've made myself stronger,

and I want everybody to know

that I wasn't a thief.

I didn't rob the Post Office,
as they say.

That's what matters to me,
my name cleared.

And it needs to be told.

Our stories do need
to be out there.

It's not just...

a little group of people,
it's hundreds.

Hundreds of people
have been through this.

Everybody ready?

A statutory inquiry has been set up

to find out what went wrong.

I know who should
be held to account.

I mean, it's the people
who have had

a very cushy lifestyle

on vast quantities of money

whilst they've made hundreds,
if not thousands,

of individuals suffer

whilst knowing the real truth
of what's been going on

and denying the truth
to all these individuals.

Those are the people
who should be held responsible.