Absolute madness

Alan Bates's fury as we reveal Fujitsu is still making millions from post office IT system while victims wait for compensation

- BY GRAHAM HISCOTT Head of Business

HERO postmaster Sir Alan Bates says it is "absolute madness" that the firm behind the Horizon IT scandal is still raking in tens of millions of taxpayers' cash while victims wait for compensation.

Fujitsu has been slammed after one of Britain's biggest miscarriages of justice, in which hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly convicted of theft and fraud.

Yet while victims are still battling for payouts with some shamefully offered a fraction of their claims - the Japanese computer giant has been given contract extensions.

The latest, a one-year addition in April this year, was worth £42million.

Accounts out this week showed revenues at UK-based Fujitsu Services topped £1billion last year, as it swung from a £121million loss to a £15million profit. Post Office chief executive Neil Brocklehurst insists the system's complexity means it will still be using Horizon until 2027, in which time Fujitsu is likely to carry on raking it in.

Sir Alan, who was one of hundreds wrongly accused of theft because of the faulty Horizon system, said victims were "at the end of the line".

The 71-year-old, who was knighted last year, went on: "For the government to keep throwing more and more taxpayers' money to prop up an ageing and unrepairable software programme seems absolute madness.

"I can see them (Fujitsu) taking as much as they can out of the whole place before all this finishes."

Sir Alan, who was played by Toby Jones in the hit ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office about his decades-long fight for justice, said the dodgy Horizon system should have been replaced years ago.