The Post Office sought Horizon data for recent criminal case

The Post Office attempted to use Horizon IT data to support a criminal case against a post office operator this year, despite hundreds of operators being wrongfully prosecuted for theft, fraud and false accounting due to bugs in the system.

- Mark Sweney

A chain of email correspondence between the Post Office and Fujitsu, the Horizon developer, relating to a police investigation into a potential criminal case involving a "large sum of money" against a sub-post office operator was shown at the public inquiry into the scandal yesterday.

An email was sent by John Bartlett, the head of investigations at the Post Office, to Fujitsu describing the Post Office as the "potential victim" and asking for the company to provide a witness statement to the police or the case would not be able to progress.