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Ever heard of this story ?
For the ABC to give a plug to a commercial rival, it must be a big deal.
Briefly, in 1999, the British Post Office rolled out a technology called Horizon, developed by the Japanese computer firm Fujitsu, to "streamline" the Post Office accounting system.
"
Soon after, local post office managers began finding unexplained losses that they were responsible to cover.
The state-owned post office took Fujistu's side, claiming Horizon was reliable and the branch managers were lying.
Between 2000 and 2014, around 900 postal workers were wrongly convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting — with some going to prison and others forced into bankruptcy.
In total, more than 2,000 people were affected by the scandal. Some died by suicide or attempted suicide. Others said their marriages fell apart and they became community pariahs.
But in 2016, a group of postal workers took legal action against the post office.
The real Alan Bates, whose activism the ITV series is based on, gives evidence via video link to the UK parliament inquiry into the scandal.(AP Photo: House of Commons)
It took three more years for the High Court in London to rule that Horizon contained a number of "bugs, errors and defects", and that the post office "knew there were serious issues about the reliability" of the system.
To date, just 95 convictions have been overturned, post office minister Kevin Hollinrake said.
Many others have yet to be exonerated, and only 30 have agreed to "full and final" compensation payments."
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More at:
www.abc.net.au
For the ABC to give a plug to a commercial rival, it must be a big deal.
Briefly, in 1999, the British Post Office rolled out a technology called Horizon, developed by the Japanese computer firm Fujitsu, to "streamline" the Post Office accounting system.
"
Soon after, local post office managers began finding unexplained losses that they were responsible to cover.
The state-owned post office took Fujistu's side, claiming Horizon was reliable and the branch managers were lying.
Between 2000 and 2014, around 900 postal workers were wrongly convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting — with some going to prison and others forced into bankruptcy.
In total, more than 2,000 people were affected by the scandal. Some died by suicide or attempted suicide. Others said their marriages fell apart and they became community pariahs.
But in 2016, a group of postal workers took legal action against the post office.
The real Alan Bates, whose activism the ITV series is based on, gives evidence via video link to the UK parliament inquiry into the scandal.(AP Photo: House of Commons)
It took three more years for the High Court in London to rule that Horizon contained a number of "bugs, errors and defects", and that the post office "knew there were serious issues about the reliability" of the system.
To date, just 95 convictions have been overturned, post office minister Kevin Hollinrake said.
Many others have yet to be exonerated, and only 30 have agreed to "full and final" compensation payments."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More at:
Why a show about the post office broke viewing records when it aired in the UK
Based on the ongoing British Post Office scandal, the four-part series has seen the downfall of multiple high-profile people responsible for the controversy.
www.abc.net.au
