'Opportunities missed' to investigate Horizon

A FORMER managing director of the Post Office has told an inquiry that “institutional bias” prevented further investigation of complaints made by subpostmasters about the Horizon IT system.

David Smith said the organisation’s board members were “not as focused as we could and should have been on the Horizon issues” due to a banking crisis and “concern” over the separation of the business.

Mr Smith told the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry that he felt a “huge sense of regret and remorse” about the scandal, and added that, if he knew the system could have been “tampered with”, he would have approached things differently.