Post Office lawyers had ‘unhealthy view of subpostmasters’

Former top Post Office lawyers had an “unhealthy view of subpostmasters” as they pursued prosecutions against them, an inquiry has heard.

A former top in-house lawyer for the company said colleagues viewed alleged shortfalls in Horizon accounts as coming from public money that had to be protected.

Susan Crichton, the Post Office’s former general counsel, told the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry that lawyers had not stopped to ask themselves “should we be doing this?”

Questioned by Julian Blake, counsel to the inquiry, about Rob Wilson, former head of criminal law at the Post Office, and Jarnail Singh, a senior lawyer, Ms Crichton said they had an “unhealthy view of subpostmasters”.

Their attitude towards prosecutions was “this is public money, we have to protect it, that’s our job,” she said.

Asked whether she found it “strange” not to always be invited to board meetings, the former in-house lawyer said the Post Office “did not share that understanding of her broader role”.

Ms Crichton, who resigned from her role in 2013, previously told the inquiry she believed former chief executive Paula Vennells had not understood her reasons for leaving the company.

She said: “I don’t think she understood my point about (the Second Site interim report) has to be an independent review, we can’t manage it or manipulate it in the way that possibly Alice was expecting me to do.

“This is all supposition on my part.”

Auditors Second Sight released an interim report which identified bugs that raised concerns over the reliability of Horizon data used to prosecute subpostmasters in July 2013.

Asked by Sam Stein KC, who is representing the largest number of victims, if she had signed a non disclosure agreement upon her resignation, Ms Crichton said she had.

“Have you been released from that now?” he added.

“I hope so,” she replied.

The Post Office has come under fire since the broadcast of ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, which put the Horizon scandal under the spotlight.

More than 700 subpostmasters were prosecuted and handed criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015 as Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon system made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.

Hundreds of subpostmasters are awaiting compensation despite the Government announcing that those who have had convictions quashed are eligible for £600,000 payouts.