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Horizon Integrity
* I am strongly of the opinion that in order to
win the argument we have to focus it on what
actually happened and not allow others to
conduct the debate around speculation about
what might have happened
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Horizon Integrity
¢ History
— First involved in this in 2004
— Series of articles in the Subpostmaster magazine
— And a case referred to as Cleveleys came to the
fore
* Cleveleys (Subpostmistress Mrs Wolstenholme) arises
around Horizon introduction
* Dismissal in 2001
* Post Office pursued debt through the courts
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Horizon Integrity
Dave Smith
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* Purpose of this document to set out my
thoughts on this subject matter as
— I’m on leave for two meetings called to discuss
this matter and how we handle the Press
— I’m shortly to leave the employ of the Post Office
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2) ®
Horizon Integrity
* Cleveleys
— Discrepancy contested
— Solicitor appoints “expert”
— Expert was not challenged or managed
° Expert assumes status of “joint” expert
¢ Produced a report which in my view exposed the expert as a
“sham”
* Nonetheless expert concluded that Horizon could have
caused the discrepancy
— Did not have access to audit trail so couldn’t refute
* That is prove that what the expert said could happen didn’t
happen
— Settled out of court £187.5k (cost included)
Horizon Integrity
¢ Shortly after a case called Castleton emerged
Subpostmaster contested our claim saying Horizon was at fault
We submitted audit trail as evidence
Believe Castleton’s solicitor examined audit trail and concluded there
was no substance to Castleton’s claim and advised him to settle
Castleton sacks solicitor and proceeds
Court rules in our favour with costs Castleton looking at £300k liability
and declares himself bankrupt
Judge decided that were was “no flaw” in the Horizon system, and
that “the logic of the system is correct”: he said “the conclusion is
inescapable that the Horizon system was working properly in all
material aspects”.
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Horizon Integrity
Castleton “killed” the noise until Computer Weekly ran an
article in 2009
— Even though the journalist conceded that there was little
hard evidence
Closely followed by an S4C programme
Interest in the press
And a glut of flag cases
And interest from a growing number of MPs
A small group of golden oldies
But signs that a larger group rallying to the cause
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Horizon Integrity
* Solicitor engaged on no foal no fee basis
¢ Expert appointed who has made FOI enquiry
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Horizon Integrity
¢ What is Horizon integrity
— Claim that the system either in failure mode or
through other means can create a difference
between the machine calculated cash balance and
physical cash
Horizon Integrity
Horizon is designed so that accounting
integrity is maintained when it fails
We are not defending the fact that it doesn’t
fail
Attached pdf document explains how
The audit file will show what happened
— If a transaction were “lost” this would be exposed
through break in sequence numbers
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Horizon Integrity
¢ What explanations are there?
— Subpostmaster has had hands in the till
— Assistants have had hands in the till
— Accounting error
* Many of these can be picked up by back office checks
— Cash entered as cheques or vice versa
¢ Evidence that an NS&I cash withdrawal entered as
deposit might not be picked up by NS&I
Horizon Integrity
¢ Of the cases I am aware of
Bates had discrepancies but was dismissed because he became
unmanageable. Clearly struggled with the accounting and despite
copious support did not follow instructions
Ward has been dismissed twice for failing to follow accounting
instructions
Subpostmaster who pleaded guilty in court
Castleton who put the argument that it was Horizon at fault before
the court and lost
* Details of the cases do bear looking at
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