Lawyer warned of giving ‘ammunition’ to Post Office victims

A lawyer advising the Post Office on its prosecution strategy warned that inviting independent accountants to assess cases would give ‘ammunition to those attempting to discredit the Horizon system’.

The Post Office Inquiry heard yesterday that Harry Bowyer, a barrister from national firm Cartwright King which was acting for the Post Office, had said that sub-postmasters pleading their innocence would be able to argue there was no smoke without fire if forensic accountants Second Sight found any problems. 

Advising ahead of the prosecution of Winlaton sub-postmistress Kim Wylie in 2012, Bowyer said the instruction of Second Sight would ‘go viral’ among defence lawyers. He had added: ‘I assume that we will still contend that the system is fool proof in which case we should defend it aggressively.’

Asked by inquiry counsel Emma Price whether his advice had lacked a ‘reasoned and rational case’ for carrying on prosecuting, Bowyer agreed it that it had. ‘If I lived my life again it would have been different,’ he added.

Bowyer went on to suggest in his advice that an expert be identified and instructed to prepare a ‘generic statement’ confirming the integrity of Horizon.

He added that, while this might be expensive, ‘it will be as nothing should the integrity of the Horizon system be compromised’. Post Office criminal lawyer Jarnail Singh – who appears at the inquiry on Friday – was clear in his response that the Post Office should not be put off prosecutions by the ongoing review of cases. In his response to Cartwright King, shown to the inquiry yesterday, he said that defendants would seek to stay cases until Second Sight had finished, but that such an approach ‘should be resisted’.

Singh added: ‘There is no legal or forensic ground to argue defendants will not get fair trial or abuse of process. There is no reason to justify the case being stayed. The fact that the review is being carried out is not an acknowledgement that there is an issue with Horizon… when the system has been challenged in criminal courts [it] has been successfully defended.’

The inquiry heard that Bowyer had raised concerns about Fujitsu expert witness Gareth Jenkins but he was still retained as an expert. However, Cartwright King later advised that all prosecutions needed to be reviewed. Bowyer said he was ‘pleasantly surprised’ by his firm’s stance given the importance of the Post Office as a client.

Prosecutions effectively ended then, and Bowyer told the inquiry: ‘It may well be that Cartwright King are not covered in glory as far as their role as independent lawyers is concerned but it did stop the prosecutions at that stage and begin the disclosure sift.’