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Witness Name: John Beswick
OF Nw ase
I I Dated: 2L\o1\ 20238
POST OFFICE HORIZON IT INQUIRY
FIRST WITNESS STATEMENT OF JOHN BESWICK
My name is John Beswick and I was formerly a subpostmaster. I have been invited
to make a written statement by the firm Hodge Jones & Allen LLP, who are solicitors
for a number of core participants to this Inquiry.
1. In 1977 I joined the Post Office as a SPMR of Old Leake Post Office,
Lincolnshire, PE22 9NS. I finally sold up in 2009. During my time as an SPMR
I was a close observer of all the changes underway, both at the Post Office
and within the NFSP, of which I was a member and at times branch official
and delegate.
2. I know Tim McCormack, and I understand that he has retained some Post
Office related documents I sent to him. I no longer have any of the documents
I sent to him because I disposed of all my hard copy files in 2017 when I
prepared to return to! GRO I My computer files are also lost through time
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and change of hardware. I have given Tim permission to provide any material
I sent to him to the Inquiry, and am willing to help the Inquiry with
understanding any of those documents if necessary. Any comment from me in
those documents reflected my honest views at the time of writing.
. I was fortunate to have been invited to sit on the Association of Convenience
Stores Post Office Committee as a representative of those ACS members
operating a single office. The rest of the membership were the nominated
SPMRs for multiples, operating any number of offices within their retail
estates. I cannot now provide hard dates for the ACS committee membership
but it sat both sides of the Millenium, and I attended meetings until 2008.
. An overall observation from those meetings was that Horizon losses were
dealt with differently depending on your status within POL’s estate of offices,
that is Crown Offices, Multiples who operated via a nominated SPMR at their
head office, and individual SPMRs. Only individual SPMRs were held to
personal liability for any losses shown by Horizon for their individual post
office.
. A further observation was that where SPMRs were prosecuted for shortages
of significant amounts in the tens of thousands, those losses were cumulative,
and in most cases, if not all, would have exceeded the normal cash holding for
that office. I formed the opinion that POL could have not but known something
was badly wrong at that office but failed to take action until the amount
exceeded the threshold for a criminal prosecution.
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6. I believe that the SPMR at an adjacent office to mine suffered that fate. The
branch was Stickney Post Office, and I believe that the SPMR who faced
prosecution at some point after 2000 was call 1 His wife was
called GRO I Knowing it was a much smaller office than my own, I
was as certain as could be that the above was the only logical explanation for
what happened at Stickney.
7. have also been told that POL settled large amounts (millions) with a number
of external clients, such as BT and Anglian Water, for balance differences
between POL's Horizon system and the clients’ own systems. This is not
something I was ever able to verify, but perhaps the Inquiry can.
I believe the content of this statement to be true.
Signed: I GRO
John Beswick
Dated: 2" “Tanens >. 2023
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