In 2011, the business chair Alice Perkins received a warning from Post Office auditor Ernst & Young (now EY) that the accounting software “is a real risk” and that it “does it capture data accurately?”
In spite of this, over 700 people were prosecuted for theft and false accounting using the computer program data, which caused losses at UK Post Office branches.
In their struggle to pay back what the Post Office claimed they owed, numerous additional sub-postmasters suffered severe debt, lost their homes, fell ill, and fled their areas.
On this first day of testimony, Ms. Perkins is providing a comprehensive description of Horizon’s introduction and failure to the independent statutory investigation.
According to documents provided by the investigation, early in Ms. Perkins Horizon’s chairmanship, Fujistu “took back on quality and assurance” while the Post Office “drove a very hard bargain on price,” according to an EY report.
allegations of system issues four years prior to the end of prosecutions
According to the conference notes with EY, there was “a systems problem” with Horizon, as indicated by sub-postmaster “suspects” – individuals suspected of stealing.
