More details are emerging about problems with the pre-Horizon accounting system used by subpostmen, despite the Post Office’s failure to respond to requests for answers.
There have been question marks over the reliability of the software, known as Capture, and a 1994 letter reveals the controversial software was “completely” written two years after launch, following feedback from sub-postmasters.
Following the broadcast of ITV’s long-running scandal drama Post Office Horizon, former subpostmen who had similar problems with Capture, which preceded the controversial Horizon system, have spoken out.
As with Horizon, the post office sued and sought money from some subpostmen who had inexplicable defects in the Capture system, despite the subpostmen not understanding what went wrong, being of good character and having no problem with previous pen and paper accounting. methods.
Capture was stand-alone software that subpostmen would download to a computer to complete their accounts, as opposed to the highly complex networked Horizon system that automated accounting across a network of branches and linked branches to a central system. Described as a “glorified spreadsheet”, it was potentially used in thousands of branches.
It was introduced in 1992, but was completely overhauled in 1994 after a “significant investment,” according to an August 1994 letter seen by Computer Weekly. A letter from Tom Coleman, the National Federation of Subpostmen’s (NFSP) account manager at the Postal Agency Development Center at the time, revealed the reworked software – which suggests the system was seriously flawed – to NFSP Assistant General Secretary Kevin Davis.
“Just to let you know that, after extensive cross-subtitle research, we are making a significant investment in a complete rewrite of the Capture software,” Coleman wrote. “The intention is to release the new software in the fall (1994) and it will be available for free to all existing users.”
Computer Weekly asked the Post Office what the agency’s Post Office Development Center is, what Tom Coleman’s role is involved in and why the software was rewritten. The Post Office has not responded by the time of publication of this text.
The Post Office has not yet provided information about the software and the effects of its errors.
MP Kevan Jones, who has campaigned for more than a decade for aides who have suffered from problems with Horizon, also supports those who used Capture, wanting to seek the truth about what happened.
He said: “It’s amazing that I and others have been able to put this story together while the Post Office seems to be either denying things or saying they don’t have access to the documents. Now is the time for them to put in some effort and produce everything they have.”
The Post Office has denied knowing which organization wrote the software, how many subpostmasters used it, how many of its users were prosecuted for unexplained deficiencies and how many deficiencies were returned.
Asked in a recent Freedom of Information (FOI) request if it could “provide details of who supplied and built this software and how many Post Office branches used this software”, the Post Office said it was unable to. “We are currently unable to locate the information you requested from our records, but please note that the Post Office is conducting an investigation into Capture, following serious concerns raised,” it said.
Post Office chief executive Nick Read also recently told MPs during a select committee hearing that the Post Office had spent five weeks investigating cases linked to Capture. But Computer Weekly found that, at the time he said this, the Post Office had not even contacted the individuals involved in the cases forwarded to it by MP Jones.
Computer Weekly also found that the Post Office had copyrighted the software, that there were thousands of users of the software, and that IT supplier Unisys was involved in distributing it to sub-postmen.
Evidence has now emerged that Unisys had a hand in the development of the software, with a number of components copyrighted in a copy of the 1995 Capture software update seen by Computer Weekly. Unisys told Computer Weekly last month that it was investigating its involvement in the development of Capture, but the IT vendor did not respond to Computer Weekly’s request for an update.
Steve Marston, former deputy postmaster in Bury, Lancashire, was prosecuted in 1996 for theft and false accounting after an unexplained shortfall of almost £80,000. He said he never had a problem using a paper accounting system until his branch, which has been in business since 1973, started using the Capture system.
Marston said he felt pressured to use the system at a time when the post office was closing many branches. “It was a choice between moving to this system or staying with the manual system and risking closure,” he said. “I had no problems for 20 years using manual accounting processes, but within two years of using Capture, I was £79,000 in debt.”
He did not inform the post office because he thought he was making a mistake and that it would be corrected on its own. He had no experience with computers and believed that they could not make mistakes. “Every time I had a loss, I thought it must be me – that I was wrong even though I haven’t been for over 20 years.”
He covered the losses with his own money, but things got worse. After an audit revealed a loss he could not fully cover out of pocket, he was advised to plead guilty to theft and fraud to avoid prison. The judge took into account two bravery awards Marston had previously received for standing up to armed robbers, saving him a prison sentence. He received a suspended sentence of 12 months, lost his home and job and went bankrupt.
Last month the government said it did not yet have a “real body of evidence” to include users of the Post Office’s Capture software in Horizon compensation schemes and overturning laws. He did not include Capture users in his bill to overturn wrongful prosecutions of the postmaster general.
Computer Weekly first exposed the Post Office scandal in 2009, revealing the stories of seven subpostmen and the problems they had with the Horizon system (withee timeline of weekly computer articles below).
• Read also: What you need to know about the Horizont scandal •
• Also watch: ITV documentary – Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The Real story •