Post Office investigators were handed cash bonuses for every conviction of a branch manager during the Horizon IT scandal.
Former staff have told the public inquiry that bonus incentives played a key role in one of Britain’s worst-ever miscarriages of justice.
Alan Bates – the campaigning subpostmaster who featured in the ITV drama on the scandal – condemned the “horrendous” culture of financial rewards.
It follows Rishi Sunak’s announcement that hundreds of subpostmasters would have convictions overturned under blanket legislation to be introduced within weeks.
And justice secretary Alex Chalk has said IT giant Fujitsu should repay the “fortune” spent on compensation if it is found culpable at the public inquiry.
At least 700 Post Office branch managers were convicted of swindling money on the basis of evidence from the tech giant’s flawed Horizon accounting system.
It has emerged that Gary Thomas – a former member of the Post Office security team between 2000 and 2012 – told the public inquiry there were “bonus objectives” for investigators.
Alan Bates was played by Toby Jones in recent ITV drama
Asked if influenced his actions, he said: “I’d probably be lying if I said no because … it was part of the business, the culture of the business of recoveries or even under the terms of a postmaster’s contract with the contracts manager.”
Another former Post Office investigator Dave Posnett told the inquiry last month that bonuses were partly based on the sums of money recovered once subpostmasters had been convicted.
Mr Posnett said “everyone within the security team was on a bonus, depending on their own objectives”.
Mr Bates told The Telegraph the Post Office has a bonus culture “running right through it”. The campaigner added: “It’s pretty appalling. It’s horrendous. There seems to be a culture in it and that’s got to be called into question at some point.”
Meanwhile, having another a legislative plan to overturn convictions en mass, Mr Sunak is now facing calls to go further and bar Fujitsu from securing government contracts and pursue the firm for payments.
Sunak announced plan for legislation to offer mass exoneration
The justice secretary has said that Mr Sunak’s government will want to “secure proper recompense on behalf of the taxpayer” if the inquiry delivers a damning verdict on the firm behind the faulty software.
“If the scale of the incompetence is as we might imagine, then I simply would want to secure proper recompense on behalf of the taxpayer,” Mr Chalk told ITV’s Peston.
Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake also told BBC Newsnight that it would be “only right” for Fujitsu to contribute to compensation bill if the inquiry finds it bears a lot of the responsibility for the scandal.
Ministers have acknowledged the radical plan of a law to enforce mass exoneration could result in some subpostmasters who did commit crimes being wrongly cleared – but insisted the process was the most effective way of dealing with the vast majority who were victims.
There will also be a new upfront payment of £75,000 to many of the 700 or so affected, as Mr Sunak said innocent people embroiled in the fiasco would be “swiftly exonerated and compensated”.
Mr Bates – the former subpostmaster on whom the recent ITV series centre – said it was “about time” for the move to exonerate Post Office staff – but warned that “the devil is in the detail” when it comes to the government’s legislation.
Justice secretary Alex Chalk said Fujitsu should pay towards the Post Office compensation
It has also emerged that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecuted three Post Office cases while Sir Keir Starmer was in charge. The Labour leader told reporters: “I wasn’t aware of any of them.”
The public inquiry, whose first hearing of the year on Thursday will feature Post Office investigator Stephen Bradshaw, is set to keep the scandal in the headlines.
Mr Bradshaw has been described as having a “heavy footprint” in the scandal after being involved in the criminal investigation of nine subpostmasters.
He was involved in the criminal investigation of nine subpostmasters, including Lisa Brennan, a former counter clerk at a post office in Huyton, near Liverpool, who was falsely accused of stealing £3,000 in 2003.
Mr Bradshaw has also been accused by fellow Merseyside subpostmistress Rita Threlfall of asking her for the colour of her eyes and what jewellery she wore before saying: “Good, so we’ve got a description of you for when they come” during her interview under caution in August 2010.
