#sub-postmasters

[towerblockers]

Post Office Slashes Jobs to Fund Sub-Postmasters: A Bitter Pill for Workers

Oh, what a lovely day for the Post Office! They’ve just announced a grand new plan, haven’t they? The kind that sounds like it’s straight out of a fairy tale – if you’re a sub-postmaster, that is. But for the hundreds of employees facing the chop, it’s more like a horror story penned by someone who’s never quite understood that jobs are, you know, how people pay for things like food and…

[inspectorspacetimerevisited]

Even if the Prime Minister himself asked, the Inspector wouldn’t simply pop back to prevent the Post Office scandal.

If he could save a large number of sub-postmasters from going through all the legal processes they went through? Apparently not.

[rightnewshindi]

कुल्लू में महिला सब पोस्टरमास्टर से हुई 36 लाख की रिकवरी, 150 खातों से लूटे है 1.37 करोड़; आरोपी निलंबित

Kullu News: कुल्लू के उप डाकघर सुल्तानपुर में तैनात सब पोस्टमास्टर महिला कर्मचारी की ओर से गबन की राशि एक करोड़ 37 लाख रुपये पहुंच चुकी है। विभाग अभी तक इस मामले की जांच कर रहा है। अब तक की जांच में 150 लोगों के खातों में हस्ताक्षर स्कैन कर करोड़ों रुपये का गबन किया गया है। विभाग ने महिला कर्मचारी को किया निलंबित महिला कर्मचारी ने ढाई साल में इन खातों की राशि का गबन कर डाला। इसके बाद विभाग ने…

[collapsedsquid]

I have a personal Gmail account which I use for correspondence about a book project I am working on. I woke up one morning in November to discover that I could no longer access it. A message from Google said my access had been “restricted globally” because “it looks as though Gmail has been used to send unwanted content. Spamming is a violation of Google’s policies.” The note said the decision had been made by “automatic processing” and that if I thought it was a mistake, I could submit an appeal. I had not sent any spam and couldn’t imagine why Google’s algorithm thought that I had. That made it hard to know what to write in the “appeal” text box, other than a panicked version of something like, “I didn’t do it (whatever it is)!” and, “Please help, I really need access to my email and my files”. (To my relief, I realised later that I hadn’t lost access to my drive.) Two days later, I heard back: “After reviewing your appeal, your account’s access remains restricted for this service.” I wasn’t given any more information on what I had supposedly done or why the appeal had been rejected, but was told that “if you disagree with this decision, you can submit another appeal.” I tried again and was rejected again. I did this a few more times — curious, at this point, about how long this doom loop could continue. A glance at Reddit suggested other people had been through similar things. Eventually, I gave up. (Google declined to comment on the record.) Among regulators, one popular answer to the question of how to make automated decisions more “fair” is to insist that people can request a human to review them. But how effective is this remedy? For one thing, humans are prone to “automation complacency” — a tendency to trust the machine too much. In the case of the UK’s Post Office scandal, for example, where sub-postmasters were wrongly accused of theft because of a faulty computer system called Horizon, a judge in 2019 concluded that people at the Post Office displayed “​���a simple institutional obstinacy or refusal to consider any possible alternatives to their view of Horizon”. [...] As for my email account, when I decided to write about my experience for this column, I emailed Google’s press office with the details to see if I could discuss the issue. By the end of the day, my access to my email account had been restored. I was pleased, of course, but I don’t think many people would see that as particularly fair either.

Unfriendly AI

[ayeforscotland]

Good morning Aye, or afternoon maybe?

Could you explain what the Post Office scandal is about?

Howdy! Sure thing. The Post Office scandal is probably one of the biggest contemporary miscarriages of justice in the UK. To the point where calling it a 'scandal' actually minimises how terrible it is.

To be absolutely clear, the pressure and stress the victims of the 'scandal' had to deal with is linked with 4 suicides. An innocent young mum was jailed while she was pregnant with her second child. Countless others sent to prison or left financially ruined. Marriages and families were destroyed.

To start with, what is a Post Office? Some people might be under the impression that Post Offices in the UK are ran by the Royal Mail. They are not.

The Post Office is a retail company. Most Post Offices are run by franchise owners (In the same way, people can run a franchise of McDonalds). These people are referred to as 'Sub-postmasters'. The scandal saw over 700 sub-postmasters convicted of a number of financial misconduct crimes - straight up theft, fraud, providing false accounts.

The cause of all of this was a SOFTWARE ERROR.

The Post Office's Horizon system was had a fault which reported false shortfalls of money. The Post Office claimed the system was robust, and they went after these people.

The reason why people are talking about it more now is that ITV released a dramatisation of it at the start of the year. Hopefully it leads to convictions being overturned.

[saintmeghanmarkle]

Meghan invited celebrity strangers to her wedding. Catherine included people she knew including the village post master, and stood by him during the post office scandal. This tells you everything

It’s the small things.

Many in the UK would by now be familiar with the British Post Office scandal, in which sub-post masters were wrongly accused of theft due to errors in the Horizon computer system. The scandal has gained public attention after the ITVx series Mr Bates Vs The Post Office premiered on the 1st of January. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56718036.amp)

One of those sub-post masters included shopkeeper Hasmukh Shingadia, who Catherine invited to her wedding along with his wife Chandrika.

Hasmukh recalls giving Doritos and Haribos to Kate and her sister Pippa when they were teenagers. Later he remembers Prince William himself popping by the store.

When Hasmukh was charged with theft, Catherine and her family stood by him and continued to buy at his store. Now his conviction is overturned along with many others. (https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thesun.co.uk/news/25303536/kate-middleton-stands-by-postmaster-scandal/amp/)

I cannot imagine Meghan deigning to recognise a village shopkeeper. She didn’t even invite her family or any of her childhood friends, instead choosing to fill the seats with celebrities she barely knew and who hardly acknowledge her now.

How empty her and Harry’s life must be! They have to buy their way in to events. There is nothing real in their lives; no connection to people. All I see is a love of all things material and superficial.

What they can’t buy is a good reputation and the love of people around them. Some day, it will come back to haunt them.

post link

author: RoohsMama

submitted: January 11, 2024 at 11:50AM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit

[mudwerks]

(via Fujitsu bugs that sent innocent people to prison were known “from the start” | Ars Technica)

Fujitsu software bugs that helped send innocent postal employees to prison in the UK were known "right from the very start of deployment," a Fujitsu executive told a public inquiry today.

"All the bugs and errors have been known at one level or not, for many, many years. Right from the very start of deployment of the system, there were bugs and errors and defects, which were well-known to all parties," said Paul Patterson, co-CEO of Fujitsu's European division.

That goes back to 1999, when the Horizon software system was installed in post offices by Fujitsu subsidiary International Computers Limited. From 1999 to 2015, Fujitsu's faulty accounting software aided in the prosecution and conviction of more than 900 sub-postmasters and postmistresses who were accused of theft or fraud when the software wrongly made it appear that money was missing from their branches....

... "You've had marriages fail, people commit suicide, an horrendous impact on people's lives," he said. "It's perfectly reasonable that the public should demand people are held to account and that should mean criminal prosecutions wherever possible." The UK government also has plans for a new law to "swiftly exonerate and compensate" people who were falsely convicted.

this is so fucked up

[queer-scots-geordie-dyke]

I'm sending this to you as a fellow Brit so I'm assuming you have been following all the post office stuff that's come out over the past year and I can't help but see the similarities between the way the locals turned on former sub-postmasters overnight, shouting and verbally abusing them in the street, throwing bricks through windows and destroying their property and the speed at which a lot of leftists turned on Jews the moment it was publicly acceptable to become monsterous without consequences.

I'm trying not to be fatalistic about it but (and I'm only speaking from UK experience) it does seem like the majority of the population are just champing at the bit for the opportunity to become violent bigots and October 7th and the war since then, the lies from the Post Office, COVID, has given a huge swathe of people who until now have had to be "anti-racist" and "pro-peace" the opportunity to get out all of their frustration and desperation to cause harm on a new target who has been declared "fair game".

I don't think humans are inhertantly bad but I think there is certainly a degree of people who want to cause problems just waiting for the right opportunity to mobilise normal people into violence by redefining their violence as just and worthy against people deserving of the pain and suffering. And people don't ever seem to ask why and how it could happen. We always focus on the instigators but never on why regular people seem to be radicalised into hatred overnight. It's really kinda scary.

I'm hoping a reasonable government might slowly help reduce the amount of hate in this country but I don't know if I have the energy to get excited yet 😭

I haven't been following the post office stuff very closely but I do know the general outline of what's been happening. Unfortunately, you're bang on when you say that once people think they have an acceptable target to vent on, all bets are off and the veneer of civility just disappears. And the problem with that is it's really hard to put a lid back on and get people to take a step back and think rationally once they've indulged their worst selves. The Tories have certainly not helped in that regard absolutely, and like you, I can only hope that things might improve somewhat now that they're gone.

[maysshortmoviereviews]

Mr. Bates vs The Post Office (2024)

One of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history where hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters and postmistresses were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a defective IT system.

This show is all based on a true story and it will make your blood boil and make you very angry at the injustice. This is still ongoing and you will not believe how long it has taken for the innocent postmasters and postmistresses to get this level of coverage. A must watch. If you are not in Britain, it will still be worth watching if you read up a little bit on the 'Horizon Post Office Scandal'. It really is just so wrong what has happened.

[resist-the-oligarchs]

Post Office lied and threatened BBC over Horizon whistleblower - BBC News

It's all coming out now, after all these years.

The UK Post Office has been managed by probably corrupt, and certainly incompetent individuals who have tried to cover up some kind of dubious deal with Fujitsu over this faulty Horizon software.

Their actions have ruined the lives of nearly 800 sub-postmasters and their families over the course of over 20 years, many of whom were tragically bankrupted and even wrongly jailed.

Many £millions in taxpayer money was paid to Fujitsu and we now need to know the names of the guilty who caused this huge miscarriage of justice.

Financial compensation alone doesn't even come close to putting this right.

[beardedmrbean]

Post Office workers who have had wrongful convictions for theft and false accounting overturned are to be offered £600,000 each in compensation, the government has said.

More than 700 branch managers were given criminal convictions when faulty accounting software made it look like money was missing from their sites.

So far, 86 convictions have been overturned.

The Post Office minister said the sum was being offered "no ifs or buts".

The compensation is for postmasters whose convictions relied on the now discredited Horizon IT system, in return for them settling their claims.

Postmasters who have already received initial compensation payments, or have reached a settlement with the Post Office of less than £600,000, will be paid the difference.

The government said the offer aimed to "bring a resolution to the scandal".

Post Office boss to return bonus after scandal

Post Office scandal: 'I lost absolutely everything'

Why were hundreds of sub-postmasters prosecuted?

Postmasters will continue to receive funds to cover legal fees. Anyone who does not want to accept the offer can continue with the existing process.

'It's not enough'

"It's not enough," said Noel Thomas, 76, from Anglesey who was sent to prison for false accounting in 2006 but eventually had his conviction quashed.

"How do you put a price on what I've been through, what my family have been through?" he told the BBC.

"People have gone through a hell of a lot. Don't forget, some have lost properties in all this business."

Others are still waiting to have their convictions overturned. Those who successfully do so in future, based on Horizon evidence, will also be entitled to the compensation.

Kevin Hollinrake, the Post Office Minister appointed last autumn, told the BBC: "If you've suffered a conviction, and you've had that conviction overturned, £600,000 is there waiting for you.

"We're doing this because people have suffered horrendous situations of course, financial loss as well as personal damage to reputation, and many other things have happened to people. So we want to get this compensation out the door."

He said the government had "erred on the side of generosity", but admitted that for some people it would not be enough.

"If you've suffered, if you've spent time in jail, if you lost your house, if your marriage has failed, all those things - if those things have happened to you, no amount of money will ever be enough," he said.

He added: "If you think your claim is worth more than £600,000, you can still go through the normal routes."

Some £21m has been paid in compensation so far to postmasters with overturned convictions.

It is one of three different compensation schemes that have been set up as the scandal developed.

The Post Office Horizon scandal has been described as "the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history".

Between 2000 and 2014, the Post Office prosecuted 736 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses - an average of one a week - based on information from a recently installed computer system called Horizon.

Some went to prison following convictions for false accounting and theft. Many were financially ruined and have described being shunned by their communities. Some have since died.

The Horizon inquiry is investigating the scandal and is likely to conclude in 2024.

Last month, Nick Read, the boss of the Post Office, agreed to return all of his bonus payment for his participation in the inquiry - a total amount of £54,400.

[eaglesnick]

Future Leader of The Conservative Party?

Kemi Badenoch, a far right Tory, is a firm favourite to take over from Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservative Party. She is very concerned about honesty and openness, and rarely misses an opportunity to tell her audiences that “It is time to tell the truth”. For Ms Badenoch, politicians need to stand up and tell the truth because the public is “crying out for honesty”. (The Standard: 12/07/22)

Quite right Ms Badenoch. We do want the truth.

Yet, the Guardian carried this headline only two days ago regarding Badenoch’s relationship with the truth.

"...the truth is an insult to the ever-outraged Kemi Badenoch. The business secretary is a passionate defender of free speech apart from any criticism of her."  (19/02/24)

The former chairman of the Post Office, Henry Staunton, who was sacked by the business secretary Kemi Badenoch last month, has claimed he received instructions from a senior government official to slow down compensation payments for sub-postmasters to allow the government time to “limp into” the next election.

Ms Badenoch vigorously denied this was the case and, using Parliamentary privilege, attacked  Mr Staunton’s revelations as “full of lies”.

Today Mr Staunton has produced evidence that he was told to “hobble" up to the general election and to delay compensation payments as "now was not the time for dealing with long term issues.” (The I: 21/02/24)

The word “hobble" certainly implies that Mr Staunton was told to delay payments to sub postmasters and mistresses, but it is still a “she said - he said” argument, and who you believe will probably depend upon your political view point.

Less problematic in establishing whether Ms Badenoch is really the champion of truth that she claims to be, is evidence from the Canadian High Commission.

Badenoch, as Business Secretary, recently told the House of Commons that trade talks with Canada were “ongoing”. This is not true say the Canadians, causing Liam Byrne, Chair of the Commons Business and Trade Select Committee, to demand of Ms Badenoch why the Canadian account of the talks is:

“so utterly at variance with what she told the House of Commons.”

Maybe the right-wing Ms Badenoch is not as honest or as concerned with telling the truth as she claims?

[lymphomalass]

Do you believe the arts (visual, written, music, film and TV, etc) can change the world…?

I think I’m seeing it happen right in front of me… and it’s awe-inspiring!

I think the writers, producers, directors and actors of the ITV true drama “Mr Bates v The Post Office” are making just this happen as they provoke public outrage at a story all about balancing ledgers and financial systems… As a qualified accountant, I know this is an outstanding creative achievement!

Sometimes artists do try to change the society they live in. Pablo Picasso’s 1937 painting “Guernica” – which represents the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians - is one example. At about 16:30 on Monday, 26 April 1937, warplanes of the German Condor Legion, commanded by Colonel Wolfram von Richthofen, bombed Guernica for about two hours. On completion, Picasso’s response to the atrocity was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and widely acclaimed. This tour helped bring the Spanish Civil War to the world's attention.

Many of the others I’ve looked at - bearing the description of “art that literally changed the world” - changed the arts rather than fundamentally benefitting large numbers of people’s lives, something that makes those involved in the “The Bates” program’s achievement all the greater. That team have called out in a compelling way a collapse of justice, and so a collapse of part of our society. They have changed the welfare and life chances of more than 700 sub-postmasters, convicted of theft after the faulty accounting system Horizon showed money was going missing around the UK.

I may be an idealist, but I believe visual artists can change the lives of other individuals, giving them images that are special to them, that can lift their spirits and give them comfort in difficult times. That’s what I aim to do.

In the UK, we’re nations who are good at the arts: taking a blank piece of paper, silence or an unknown character and injecting life into it. Our creativity is one way we’ve created wealth. Just think of Harry Potter…!

I believe great art finds a way to tell the deeper truths within its creativity. So maybe now it’s time for some of us to think bigger, like the “Mr Bates” team, to change society for the better with our art…

What do you think…?

Thanks!

Sam aka LymphomaLass xx

[secretswiftymarvelfan]

Am I glad that the sub postmasters and mistresses are getting the justice and compensation they deserve? Yes 100%

Do I also think the speed and efficiency the government is working to promise that is only because there’s a general election this year? Also yes 100%

[thecrimecrypt]

Crimes That Shook Britain (West Midlands)

Murder of Charlene Ellis and Latisha Shakespeare Best mates Letisha Shakespeare, 17, and Charlene Ellis, 18, were shot as they left a party in Aston, Birmingham, in the early hours of 2 January 2003.

Charlene’s twin Sophie, their cousin Cheryl Shaw, and friend Leon Harris were injured by the burst from an illegal submachine gun, fired from a car. The teenagers were innocent victims of a bitter gangland feud between the Johnson Crew and Burger Bar Boys.

Charlene’s half-brother Marcus Ellis, 24, along with Michael Gregory, 23, Nathan Martin, 26, and Rodrigo Simms, 20 - all alleged members of the Burger Bar Boys - were convicted of the murders and jailed for life.

The Black Panther Donald Neilson was a burglar but, in 1967, moved on to armed robberies of post offices and - in 1974 - murder.

Within nine months, he’d shot dead sub-postmasters Donald Skepper, Derrek Astin and Sidney Grayland during almost identical robberies. The media dubbed the balaclava-wearing killer the ‘Black Panther’.

In January 1975, he kidnapped heiress Lesley Whittle, 17, in Shropshire, and demanded £50,000 ransom but never got the money. Lesley was found dead months later - hanged in a drainage shaft. Neilson was given four life sentences for the murders. He died in prison in 2011.

Monster of Worcester Friday, 13 April 1973 - the mutilated bodies of siblings Paul, 4, Dawn, 2, and Samantha Ralph, just 9 months, were found impaled on a neighbor's garden railings.

Police arrested the Ralph family's lodger, David McGreavy, then aged 21. The children's dad Clive had left McGreavy babysitting while he collected his wife, Dorothy from work. But when Samantha cried, McGreavy - who'd been drinking - flipped and battered her to death.

Next, he strangled Paul, then McGreavy then mutilated their bodies with a pickaxe, before impaling them. In June 1973, David McGreavy pleaded guilty to three murders and was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 20 years.

He was controversially released on parole in December 2018.

Murder of Daniel Pelka Daniel Pelka, 4, was starved and beaten by his mother Magdalena Luczak, 29, and her boyfriend Mariusz Krezolek, 36, before he died in their Coventry home in March 2012.

Daniel was locked in a room, force-fed salt, and subjected to water torture. Krezolek broke Daniel's arm in 2011, but the couple claimed that he'd fallen off the sofa. Daniel weighed just 1st 9lb when he died.

Krezolek and Luczak blamed each other but were both convicted of Daniel's murder and jailed for life with a minimum 30-year term. A serious case review found there were missed opportunities to help little Daniel.

Social services had investigated in 2011 and teachers had raised concerns when the underweight child was caught stealing food and eating from bins. Luczak was found hanged in her cell in July 2015. Krezolek died of a heart attack in prison in 2016.

Tracie Andrews Lee Harvey, 25, was stabbed 42 times in his car on a quiet lane near Alvechurch, Worcestershire. His fiancée Tracie Andrews claimed a man had murdered Lee during a road-rage attack after a three-mile car chase.

Andrews sobbed during a press conference appealing for info, but it emerged that the couple had a volatile relationship, and Andrews could be violent. Police found the murder weapon hidden in the petrol tank of Lee's car and Andrews was charged with his murder.

Andrews claimed she acted in self-defense, but the court heard that she'd stabbed Lee after a row broke out in the car. She was convicted of murder and jailed for life. Andrews, was released in July 2011 after serving 14 years of her sentence.

Murder of Naomi Smith At 9:45 on 14 September 1995, Naomi Smith, 15, went to post a letter for her mum. Just before midnight, Naomi's father and her best friend found Naomi's half-naked body underneath the slide of a local playground a few hundred meters from her home in Ansley Common, Nuneaton.

Naomi had been sexually assaulted, her throat cut and body mutilated. DNA found on her body matched that of local man Edwin Hopkins, 19.

During his trial, it was revealed Hopkins had an obsession with knives. He was convicted of murdering Naomi during a frenzied attack and jailed for life. Hopkins maintained his innocence, but an application to review his minimum term in 2010 was declined.