One of the solicitors who helped to expose the Post Office scandal has said lawyers should be a ‘potential target’ for investigations into who caused it.
James Hartley, a dispute resolution partner at national firm Freeths, who was featured in last week’s Mr Bates v The Post Office, said the role of lawyers did not attract the same attention as other figures at the Post Office and its IT provider Horizon.
But speaking over the weekend to Times Radio, Hartley said that while lawyers for the Post Office involved in prosecutions over the years might not face criminal prosecutions, they could be subject to regulatory action. He suggested future investigations should assess the ‘culpability and accountability’ of lawyers under professional conduct rules.
‘Why did it go wrong and who knew what?’ he asked. ‘The inquiry work is being watched really closely by the Metropolitan Police. They will do their own investigations and ultimately I would say there’s probably five potential targets here.
‘One is the entity Post Office Ltd, one is senior decision-makers within Post Office – obviously [former chief executive] Paula Vennells but there are others as well.
‘Thirdly, Fujitsu the company potentially or that could be more difficult, I think. Fourth, employees within Fujitsu who’ve given evidence in court cases which has found [which] was found to be potentially misleading. And lastly there is the role of lawyers.’
It emerged over the weekend that the Metropolitan Police is investigating the Post Office over potential fraud offences committed during the 20-year scandal. Meanwhile, the justice secretary is understood to be meeting Kevin Hollinrake, minister with responsibility for the Post Office, today to discuss overturning all the wrongful convictions.
Hudgell Solicitors, one of the firms representing victims at the Post Office Inquiry, has said that more than 50 people have come forward with compensation claims since last week.
The inquiry will resume next week with a fresh injection of public interest following the ITV drama about the scandal. On New Year’s Day an estimated 3.6 million people watched the first episode of a four-part drama Mr Bates v The Post Office, starring Toby Jones as postmaster Alan Bates. It was followed by a documentary on those featured in the drama.
The scandal, where more than 700 people were convicted of fraud, theft and false accounting over 20 years, had been slow to capture public attention as the widest miscarriage of justice in British legal history. Victims have lost their homes, marriages and reputations after being pursued for shortages that were caused by the Horizon IT system. Four people are believed to have taken their own lives.
The level of public scrutiny is now likely to change, with fresh calls for criminal and regulatory action against those who pursued prosecutions against sub-postmasters.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is a core participant in the public inquiry but has stated that any disciplinary action must wait until those proceedings have ended.
The inquiry itself has almost finished phase four, which focuses on the civil and criminal cases pursued against individuals. Evidence from in-house and external Post Office lawyers was heard in the second half of last year. In total, 190 witnesses have now appeared at 128 public hearings.
Stephen Bradshaw, a Post Office employee involved in the criminal investigation of nine people, will appear on Thursday. He had been due to give evidence in November, but his appearance was postponed after the late disclosure of relevant documents by the Post Office. A number of similar postponements held up proceedings last year, despite the Post Office spending £24.4m on disclosure in 18 months.
The inquiry has previously heard from representatives of the Post Office and its advisers Herbert Smith Freehills and KPMG about process failings and what chair Sir Wyn Williams described as potentially ‘deeper rooted problems’ relating to disclosure. A partner from Burges Salmon, which replaced HSF as the Post Office’s recognised legal representative in September, will appear on Friday to update on progress.
Williams said in his end-of-year message that he expects ‘full cooperation’ from participants to ensure oral evidence finishes this year. ‘Any avoidable disruption to my search for answers will not be tolerated,’ he added. ‘People have waited long enough to hear the truth about events that had such adverse consequences on their lives.’
The inquiry will turn in the spring to focus on the mediation scheme and civil actions for compensation by sub-postmasters.
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