IT expert 'pressurised' by Post Office over evidence

Thursday was the third day the inquiry heard from Gareth Jenkins. He will conclude his oral evidence on Friday

A Fujitsu software expert who helped build the Horizon system has said he felt pressurised by the Post Office over evidence he gave in the 2010 prosecution of sub-postmistress Seema Misra.

Gareth Jenkins said the Post Office "clearly" wanted him to say that "everything was perfect, and I don't think I actually said that".

However, in an email discussing the case at the time, he said Mrs Misra had "jumped on the bandwagon" in blaming Horizon for shortfalls in accounts.

Mrs Misra told the BBC that this was an example of a culture that went "right through the Post Office... [that] Horizon is perfect".

Mrs Misra was one of hundreds of sub-postmasters and postmistresses prosecuted by the Post Office between 1999 and 2015 on the strength of faulty data from the Horizon accounting system.

The technology made it look as though money was missing from Post Office branch accounts when it wasn't.

At Mrs Misra's trial in 2010 she was accused of theft and false accounting.

The sub-postmistress from West Byfleet, Surrey, was found guilty and sent to prison when she was eight weeks pregnant.

Her conviction was quashed in 2021.

Mr Jenkins said he felt, prior to the prosecution, that he was being pressurised by the Post Office to make out that Horizon was "perfect" in commenting on a report written by an expert witness for the defence.

He added that the management of Mrs Misra's case was "fairly chaotic", and that requests from the Post Office legal department had been unclear.

Nevertheless, in an email discussing Mrs Misra's case in 2010, he wrote that Mrs Misra "saw an article in [tech publication] Computer Weekly indicating that Horizon was unreliable and decided to jump on the bandwagon".

Mr Jenkins said this was "totally inappropriate wording" and apologised.

Lead counsel for the inquiry Jason Beer asked Mr Jenkins whether he had been able to give evidence dispassionately, or had he been "afflicted" with the belief that sub-postmasters were jumping on the bandwagon in blaming Horizon for shortfalls.

Mr Jenkins said that he didn't think Horizon was the problem, and that there were "other reasons" for shortfalls.

Responding to Mr Jenkins' evidence, Mrs Misra said she felt that the former Fujitsu engineer's comments showed the culture in the Post Office at the time, which was that sub-postmasters were to blame for shortfalls, rather than Horizon being at fault.

Guidance sought

The inquiry was also shown an email sent on 27 January 2010 where Mr Jenkins had read a report on a separate prosecution and wrote that Horizon data “probably needs some further investigation”.

However, he said the decision to do so would be “highly political”.

"We don't really want to be seen to be undermining a Post Office prosecution!" he wrote.

Mr Jenkins said he wanted guidance from senior management on "what exactly we should be doing".

Mr Beer asked: "Why did you need guidance on whether or not Fujitsu should just present the facts irrespective of whether they supported or undermined a Post Office prosecution?"

Mr Jenkins replied: "The guidance I got was to just tell the truth, which is what I would have liked to have done anyway."

"Did you need guidance from management on whether you should tell the truth or not?" Mr Beer asked.

Mr Jenkins said he would just tell the truth, but said he needed guidance from management on whether he was covered by management in this.

Mr Beer asked: "You needed top cover for telling the truth?"

Mr Jenkins responded: "I don't know what to say to that."

Mr Jenkins is being investigated by the Metropolitan Police for suspected perjury - lying to court.

'I can't remember what I believed'

Mr Jenkins had knowledge of a serious bug in Horizon Online, which was a version of the software being developed at the time of the Seema Misra case.

However, he didn't disclose this at her trial because she had been using a legacy version of Horizon, and so the bug was "totally irrelevant", he told the inquiry.

Mr Beer also asked Mr Jenkins about a separate email from 2010, where he described a case as “another example of postmasters trying to get away with 'Horizon has taken my money'."

Mr Jenkins was asked if that revealed his mindset when he was preparing for Mrs Misra's case.

"I can't remember what I believed,” he replied, and when pressed by Mr Beer, said: "I didn't believe there were any problems with Horizon that was causing Horizon to lose money.

"I just wasn’t thinking things through properly,” Mr Jenkins said, adding that he felt the Post Office wasn't training postmasters properly on the system.