False Accounts

In 1999 Horizon, a new computer system was installed in Post Offices nationwide. There was only one problem, it was prone to bugs and the designers were aware of this. Soon Postmasters across the UK were experiencing mysterious shortfalls of thousands of pounds that they were liable for. The issue escalated with hundreds facing financial bankruptcy as they struggled to remedy the situation out of their own pocket, all while the Post Office did nothing to rectify the problem. In fact, they had an aggressive policy of prosecuting Postmasters, securing criminal convictions, and using the courts to strip them of all their financial assets. Even when those in charge knew these convictions were unsafe, they still let innocent people go to prison.