At least 45 people under investigation over Post Office Horizon IT scandal

The police criminal inquiry into the Post Office Horizon IT scandal is investigating more than 45 individuals, with seven formally identified as main suspects.

- Mark Sweney

The investigation, which the police described as unprecedented in size and scale, is the first to examine potential offences of perjury and perverting the course of justice by those who made "key decisions" on Post Office investigations and supporting prosecutions of branch-owner operators.

The police would not reveal the names of the seven suspects, but four of them have been interviewed. The number of formal suspects is expected to rise. More than 900 post office operators were prosecuted by the Post Office between 1999 and 2015 because of faulty Horizon accounting software that made it look as though they had been committing fraud.

The scandal, widely considered to be the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history, was the subject of the critically-acclaimed ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which aired last year and thrust the scandal into the national spotlight.

The government introduced unprecedented legislation in March 2024 to exonerate people who had been wrongly prosecuted.