Board Member Highlights Lone Concerns Over Post Office Litigation Strategy Amidst High Court Battle

Whistleblower Reveals Lone Battle Against Post Office’s £100m Court Strategy

In a stunning revelation, a former civil servant on the Post Office board, Tom Cooper, has come forward with claims that he was the sole voice of concern against the organization’s litigation strategy during the High Court battle with subpostmasters. This legal fight, which has been described as one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British history, saw the Post Office squander over £100 million of taxpayer money.

The controversy centers around the Post Office’s Horizon computer system, which was implicated in causing unexplained accounting shortfalls. Hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongly blamed and penalized for these discrepancies, leading to a multimillion-pound group litigation in 2018/19. The subpostmasters emerged victorious, proving that the flawed Horizon system was at fault.

Cooper, who represented the government on the Post Office board at the time, disclosed during the latest hearing of the public inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal that he felt isolated in his skepticism towards the organization’s court strategy. He criticized the legal team for completely mismanaging the litigation and ignoring major defects in the Post Office’s processes and case.

Highlighting the aggressive stance taken by the Post Office, Cooper pointed out that there were several instances where the organization should have sought compromise rather than disputing every claim. He specifically mentioned a contentious liability clause in the subpostmasters’ contracts, which he deemed unfair and unethical.

The situation escalated following a damning judgment by Judge Peter Fraser in March 2019, which criticized the Post Office’s oppressive behavior. Despite this, the Post Office considered appealing the judgment, a move Cooper found premature without a proper evaluation of the judgment itself.

Cooper’s astonishment grew as the Post Office not only appealed the judgment but also applied for Judge Fraser to recuse himself on grounds of bias, a request that was ultimately rejected by the Court of Appeal. The legal battle concluded in December 2019 with the Post Office settling with the 555 subpostmasters, triggering a series of events that led to the overturning of hundreds of wrongful convictions, the launch of a statutory public inquiry, and the government committing over £1bn towards financial redress for the victims.

The Post Office scandal, first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009, has since become a landmark case of injustice, highlighting the devastating impact of flawed technology and aggressive legal strategies on the lives of ordinary people. As the public inquiry continues, Cooper’s testimony sheds light on the internal conflicts and concerns that were overshadowed by the Post Office’s determined pursuit of a flawed legal strategy.