This story has been described as one of the greatest
miscarriages of justice in British history. It involves the British
Post Office pursuing innocent workers (postmasters) for apparent
financial irregularities and shortfalls which were caused by faults
in its IT accounting software system that made it look like money
was missing from branch accounts. Postmasters are self-employed and
run branch post offices under contract to the Post Office and are
liable for any loss or damage to any Post Office cash and stock and
any shortfalls in the money payable to the Post Office must be made
good (in full) by the postmaster.
Between 1999 and 2015 more than 900 postmasters were (wrongly)
convicted of theft, fraud, and false accounting based on a faulty
IT data. Some postmasters who were prosecuted but not convicted,
were forced to cover shortfalls caused by the faulty IT system with
their own money, or have the contracts terminated. The Post
Office's actions resulted in
