An independent forensic accountant, Ian Henderson, who was hired by Post Office (POL) to investigate the controversial Horizon accounting system, has revealed possible evidence of a criminal conspiracy within the organization. During the public inquiry into the sub-postmaster scandal, Henderson testified that former chief executive Paula Vennells had consistently attempted to steer him away from probing potential miscarriages of justice.
Henderson, along with his colleague Ron Warmington, were initially hired by POL in 2012 to review sub-postmaster convictions involving the Horizon system. However, they were subsequently dismissed in 2015 and Henderson believes it was because they were “getting too close to the truth.” He also stated that it became clear to him that POL was actively sabotaging their efforts to seek the truth, regardless of the consequences.
In his witness statement, Henderson revealed that he had signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with the Post Office and claimed he later faced a thinly veiled threat from the company’s then head of legal, Chris Aujard, “to bankrupt me if I continued causing trouble.” He also mentioned a 2013 interim report produced by himself and Warmington, which identified two bugs in the Horizon system that caused issues for 76 branches.
When questioned by counsel to the inquiry, Jason Beer KC, about the “shared desire to seek the truth irrespective of the consequences,” Henderson replied, “I think we’d moved on from that.” He went on to say that he believed POL was seeking advice from external lawyers about the potential financial consequences of their findings, particularly in terms of compensation for the affected sub-postmasters.
Henderson also revealed that he felt Second Sight, the company he worked for, was dealing with a cover-up by POL and possibly a criminal conspiracy. He expressed concern about the threats made against him by POL for alleged breaches of his NDA and duties of confidentiality. These threats included potential legal action for defamation, breach of confidence, or breach of contract.
According to Henderson, his work for POL and the mediation scheme was the most challenging in his 40-year career as a chartered accountant. He stated that one of the main difficulties was POL’s tendency to say one thing in public and do the opposite in private. He cited an example of this when Vennells stated to the Parliamentary Select Committee in 2015 that their work had found “no evidence of miscarriages of justice” and that it was important to uncover any such cases. However, Henderson claims that Vennells consistently tried to steer Second Sight away from investigating potential miscarriages of justice.
He also mentioned feeling that POL believed they were above the law due to their long history as the nation’s most trusted brand. Henderson stated that this belief led to the organization sabotaging their efforts to seek the truth, with requests for documents being ignored or excessively delayed, and claims of legal professional privilege being used to withhold information.
In his concluding statement, Henderson expressed that their duty was to follow the evidence, but they increasingly found evidence of questionable conduct by POL, some of which he believes may be criminal. He also stated that their primary duty was to help “the skint little people” who had been treated unfairly by POL, in the words of Alan Bates.
During her own testimony to the inquiry last month, Vennells admitted that she had perhaps been “too trusting” of those around her when it came to uncovering the truth about miscarriages of justice. This comes after more than 700 sub-postmasters were wrongly convicted of charges including theft and false accounting between 1999 and 2015, with many still awaiting compensation. The inquiry continues to investigate these allegations and seek justice for those affected.
