The Post Office failed to investigate irregularities at sub-post offices before launching civil and criminal inquiries against employees, a report claims.
A review was conducted by forensic accountants Second Sight after more than 100 sub-postmasters said they were wrongly prosecuted for theft, fraud and false accounting because of problems with the Horizon computer software leading to shortfalls being generated in their accounts.
The review, commissioned by the Post Office, found it failed in a number of cases to look at the cause for the shortfalls before beginning court proceedings, the BBC reported.
Responding, the Post Office said it was concerned the report “repeats complaints made by a very small number of former postmasters, as well as a number of assertions and opinions”, adding that no evidence had been offered to support the claims.
A spokesman said: “Over the past three years there have been exhaustive investigations which have not found any evidence of systemic problems with the Horizon system.
“The mediation scheme was set up to address individual complaints and that is what we have gone to great lengths to do - a number are now resolved. The complaints are considered on their facts and substance.”
Alan Bates, chairman of Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, has previously said problems with the computer system had been reported since its introduction more than a decade ago.
The Post Office said there have been 150 applications to its Complaint Review and Mediation Scheme, established two years ago, out of almost 500,000 users.
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