Four suspects identified in Post Office Horizon investigation, Metropolitan Police say

Four suspects have been identified by police investigating possible criminal charges as part of the Post Office Horizon scandal.

More potential suspects will be identified as the investigation into one of the most widespread miscarriages of justice in UK history progresses, the Metropolitan Police said.

More than 900 sub-postmasters were prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 after faulty Horizon accounting software made it appear they had no money in their accounts.

Hundreds of people are still waiting for compensation despite the previous government announcing that those who had their convictions annulled would be eligible for £600,000 payments.

The Met said members of the investigation team met with chief campaigner and former sub-postmaster Sir Alan Bates on Sunday to provide an update on the investigation.

Detectives have previously stated that they are investigating allegations of fraud, perjury and perversion of justice in relation to investigations and prosecutions carried out by the Post Office.

Two people were interviewed under caution, but no one has been arrested since the investigation began in January 2020.

In a statement, police said: “On Sunday 17 November, members of the investigation team met with Sir Alan Bates and some of the affected sub-postmasters to provide an update on our progress and next steps following our invitation.

“Our investigation team, comprising officers from forces across the UK, is now available and we will share further details in due course.

“The team is preparing to contact other affected subpost administrators in the near future.”

The statement included the following: “Although four suspects have been officially identified at this stage, this number will increase as the investigation progresses.”

The update from the Met came as Post Office minister Gareth Thomas was grilled by MPs about the organisation’s and the Government’s legal costs to compensate victims of the scandal.

Former Postal Affairs Minister Kevin Hollinrake previously apologized at the Horizon IT investigation for allowing the previous government to be “armed with lawyers” while trying to resolve compensation.

Asked whether he agreed with Mr Hollinrake that it would be concerning for the government to arm itself with lawyers, Mr Thomas told the Business and Trade Committee: “Armament, absolutely, I would be very disturbed by that kind of statement.”

Asked whether he believed the previous government was armed with lawyers, he continued: “I’m not going to comment on what’s happened before, what I’ve just made clear is that we want both a faster compensation process and a solution that still provides full and fair solutions.” ”

Committee chairman Liam Byrne interjected: “We can tell you what happened before because the total legal bill the taxpayer has spent on lawyers for this injustice is around £268 million.”

Mr Thomas replied: “As I have already stated, Mr Byrne, we are seeking to take a number of steps to expedite the compensation process and we are also concerned about the cost of legal advice – which we have done. “We have made our concerns very clear to the Post Office going forward in terms of some of the lawyers that the Post Office is currently using.”

Mr Byrne asked: “Is the Post Office spending too much money on lawyers?”

Mr Thomas said: “We encouraged them to, let me put it this way, take another look at how much they were paying and what they were asking lawyers to do.

“Of course, we think some of the tasks that lawyers do could be done less expensively.”

The committee chairman said: “It looks like ‘yes’.”

“Yes probably means yes, Mr. Byrne,” Mr. Thomas replied.