Post Office exec denies remote access cover-up

Former Post Office executive Angela van den Bogerd has said executives did not "cover up" knowledge that the computers of sub-postmasters could be accessed remotely.

Despite "a slew" of emails referring to the possibility of remote access to the Horizon IT system used in branches, Ms van den Bogerd had not challenged Post Office statements denying a back door, a lawyer said at an inquiry into the scandal.

But she said she had not been attempting to suppress information.

Earlier she told the inquiry that she "didn't knowingly do anything wrong".

The Post Office asserted in hundreds of wrongful prosecutions of sub-postmasters that they must have been to blame for shortfalls in accounts, which were calculated using the Horizon IT system.

The prosecutions, between 1999 and 2015, saw people go to prison, while many others were left financially ruined and lost their jobs, businesses and homes. Some died while waiting for justice.

In certain key cases, such as the landmark Bates vs Post Office, the organisation insisted that the Horizon software could not be accessed remotely by any other party.

As part of that case, Ms van den Bogerd told the High Court in March 2019 that she first knew about remote access "in the last year or so".

But Jason Beer, lead counsel to the inquiry, said on Thursday: "That's false isn't it?"

She replied: "At the time I didn't think it was."

Ms van den Bogerd was prominently depicted in the ITV drama which thrust the Post Office scandal back into the spotlight, played by ex-Coronation Street actress Katherine Kelly.

Ms van den Bogerd said in her witness statement to the inquiry that she was not aware of remote access to accounts until 2011.

The inquiry was shown a series of emails that Ms van den Bogerd received from 2010 to 2014 about remote access to Horizon.

A December 5 2010 email forwarded to her from Lynn Hobbs, the organisation's general manager of network support, said she had "found out that Fujitsu can actually put an entry into a branch account remotely".

But Ms van den Bogerd told the inquiry she didn't "actually remember" getting this.

She also got emails in 2011 and 2014 telling her about the possibility of remote access.

But in 2014 Post Office communications professional Melanie Corfield sent an email to several Post Office executives, including Ms van den Bogerd.

It read: "Our current line, if we're asked about remote access being used to change branch data or transactions, is simply 'this is not and has never been possible'."

Ms van den Bogerd said she "must have missed" the email, adding: "If it had registered with me, I would have challenged it", because she had received earlier emails stating the opposite.

Mr Beer asked why other Post Office executives had also not picked up on remote access being possible, despite being included in email chains saying it was.

"Is it a case of everyone missing it? Or is it that the overriding objective is to defend, very robustly, the position that there is no remote access?" he said.

Ms van den Bogerd said "that was never my position" and that "I was certainly not trying to cover up or suppress, or do anything along those lines, and that's the bit I'm struggling with, because it wasn't just me - there are other people being party to the same information at that point."

Earlier in her testimony to the inquiry, Ms van den Bogerd had said she was "truly, truly sorry" for the "devastation" caused to wrongly convicted sub-postmasters and their families.

She also said: "I didn't knowingly do anything wrong, and I would never knowingly do anything wrong."

Ms van den Bogerd confirmed to Mr Beer that Fujitsu had not been "transparent" with her and the Post Office, and also agreed that executives had been trying to control the narrative by using the words "exception or anomaly" to describe bugs or defects in the Horizon system.

Ms van den Bogerd held various roles throughout her 35-year career at the Post Office, rising to head of network services, head of partnerships, director of support services and director of people and change.