A sub-postmaster made famous for being portrayed in the ITV Post Office drama is taking the state-owned body and Fujitsu to court.
Lee Castleton has become the first individual former sub-postmaster to launch High Court action against the Post Office and the maker of the Horizon faulty computer software.
It was the Horizon accounting software created by Fujitsu that wrongly generated financial shortfalls, making it appear that Mr Castleton owed the Post Office money.
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Mr Castleton wrongfully had a judgment issued against him in 2007 for taking £25,000.
He is bringing the challenge against the organisations after it emerged Fujitsu withheld its error log during the prosecution.
Had it been included it would have been clear Horizon contained bugs, errors and defects.
This failure to disclose means the judgment against him was obtained by fraud, he will argue.
“We also believe the judgement was obtained by fraud in that the Post Office and Fujitsu knew perfectly well that the Horizon system wasn’t working properly,” his solicitor Simon Goldberg said.
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The Post Office and Fujitsu maintained there were no errors with Horizon until 2019.
While prosecutions against sub-postmasters have been overturned en masse through one-off legislation, the civil judgment against Mr Castleton was not captured by the law and still stands.
Uncovered fraud
The revelation that information was withheld from Mr Castleton during his trial came out during the public inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal.
The inquiry was established to create a clear account of the implementation and failure of the Fujitsu-created software.
As part of the scandal, more than 700 sub-postmasters were prosecuted for theft and false accounting.
Many more, like Mr Castleton, were declared bankrupt as they struggled to plug the imagined shortfalls.
The judgment also destroyed his business, livelihood, and reputation in his community.
It had a devastating long-term impact on his and his family’s health.
He was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the New Year’s honours list.
The Post Office and Fujitsu have been contacted for comment.
