That the Gov & Post Office have been horrendous in the response to the Post Office scandal?

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Listening to what happened on Radio 4 - people committed suicide, others imprisoned and gone bankrupt over shortfalls the Post Office had claimed were occuring but CEOs had been aware of a system issue years before. Compensation was then only menial in relation to how this has impacted people financially and mentally.

Also - has anyone actually found the "missing" money yet?

I'd love to know the answer to this - some of the victims gave the Post Office thousands from their savings to make up for the non-existent losses.

Yes indeed - not only did money disappear but yes, so many of them were cross-subsidising the post office from their savings or their other businesses like the shops that the post offices were in.

I also don't understand why the judge in the case above passed a custodial sentence, having more or less instructed the jury not to convict - he could have used his discretion to pass a less severe sentence.

The white woman convicted in similar circumstances (although not pregnant) got a 12 month supervision order. The people in her village raised £36k to pay off the Post Office.

Yes that came through quite clearly in Nick Wallis's book that in many cases the local community thought there was no smoke without fire but in other instances (probably later on as the internet took hold and people found it easier to join the dots, they realised something weird was going on) the local community supported the postmasters and mistresses and they received much lighter sentences.

But I am sure race played a role - no doubt.

Also the people in that village should get their £36K back with interest (along with everyone else who lost money, quite apart from the ruined businesses).

The whole thing is indeed a true scandal from start to finish - Fujitsu, the Post Offices legal & (a hang over from it being founded before the police) internal prosecution dept - so they didn't have to go via the CPS to prosecute, the managers at PO who sort to cover up the issues once it became clear there was a problem with Horizon and covered it up, then fought the enquiry all the way to the High Court (wasting more public money). The fact that those in charge have not been prosecuted for fraud & still hold directorships & other top jobs, whilst showing no contrition.

The bit that gives me the most rage is that when problems became regular with Horizon and Postmasters were refusing to sign off their accounts at the end of the day until the issues they'd raised were resolved, they changed the software so they had agree they were happy with the figures at the end of each day in order to keep using the system / running their post office & open the next day. The Post Office legal dept then prosecuted a load of them for fraud - saying they had knowing lied / committed fraud by ticking the end of day box! (Rather having to prove they had stolen the money which was impossible since they hadn't since the discrepancies were just in Horizon & not in the real world so there was no evidence of spending the "missing money" & no sports cars, foreign holidays, etc - the sort of evidence the CPS would have needed if they'd be in charge of the prosecution.)

Private Eye (with Nick Wallis and the MP Peter Bottomly ) have been tracking / unearthing evidence for ages - they don't put much online (as they want people to buy the mag) but here's the special report they put out a while back.

Private Eye - Justice Lost In The Post