Taxpayers’ money was used to settle the Post Office’s £100m legal bill, with a High Court case securing a £42.5m settlement, but huge legal costs meant each claimant only received around £20,000.
Around 900 former deputy postmasters are believed to have been affected by Horizon between 1999 and 2015.
The BBC, which leaked the Bramble document, reports that some extracts from Deloitte’s draft report were used by the Post Office in a defense document.
The document was accompanied by a signed statement of truth that it would be “impossible” for Fujitsu to remotely cause “significant defects”.
The full findings of the report, commissioned by the Post Office, were never shared or submitted to the court.
Patrick Green KC, lead solicitor for the sub-postmaster in the Bates case, told the BBC: “[It is] exactly the kind of thing we would like to have and analyze and put before the judge.
“They admitted they could do in 2017 something they still denied they could do in 2019.”
‘Incredibly Cursed’
Ron Warmington, a fraud investigator who worked for Second Sight, was commissioned by the Post Office to investigate the missing funds in 2012.
He called the Bramble document “incredibly damning” and said it exposed “industrial scale interference” in the Postmaster General’s accounts.
Audio recordings of Mr Warmington and his colleague Ian Henderson from 2013 were recently discovered and released on Channel 4 News, showing investigators informing postmasters that Horizon was likely to blame for the disappearance rather than theft by the postmaster. funds.
The tapes show the investigators, who were later fired by the Post Office, talking to Post Office technical expert Simon Baker about their discovery of flaws in Horizon.
The conversations reveal that Post Office and Fujitsu bosses were aware that the computer system could change sub-postal accounts as far back as 2013.
Investigators are citing the possibility of a “nightmare scenario” in which postmaster accounts could be altered without their knowledge or permission.
Mr Baker claims in the tapes that he informed Post Office directors Susan Crichton and Alwen Lyons that Fujitsu had admitted to him about the problems with Horizon.
Second Sight investigators told post office bosses in a second call, also revealed by Channel 4, of their concerns about Horizon.
‘They allowed this lie to continue’
Paula Vennells, the Postmaster General, was due to meet Lord Arbuthnot the next day. ITV reports that Ms Vennells was made aware of the shortcomings in 2013.
Ms Vennells was stripped of her CBE earlier this year for “bringing the honor system into disrepute” for her role in the scandal, which has been called the biggest miscarriage of justice in British history.
Lord Arbuthnot told Channel 4: “[The Post Office] allowed that lie to continue. They let the subpostmen languish in prison.
“They allowed further deputy chiefs to go to the wall. Paula Vennells lied to Parliament in February 2015.
“I’ve been doing this for 14-15 years and the thought that a British institution could behave like this, under our ownership, is just appalling.”
Next month will see a number of high-profile witnesses give evidence as the inquest continues, including campaigner Alan Bates, whose fight for justice was televised in the ITV drama series Mr Bates vs the Post Office.
In May, Ms Vennells will face a three-day cross-examination, which is likely to include questions about when she knew there were serious problems with the Horizon software.
A spokesman for the Post Office said: “The Horizon IT Inquiry is a statutory inquiry led by magistrates to establish what happened and examine witnesses under oath.
“It is up to the inquiry to reach its own independent conclusions after considering all the evidence on the issues it is examining.
“The Post Office fully supports this process and it would be inappropriate to comment on related matters outside of the investigation.”
Ms Vennells, Ms Lyons and Ms Crichton did not comment on the report.