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Judicial scandal: Sentence against employees of the British postal service overturned

For years, the British postal service accused numerous employees of theft. As a result, some were convicted. Now all the sentences have been overturned: Behind the seemingly missing amounts was not theft, but a software error.

Differential amounts were the basis of the accusations

Between the years 2000 and 2014, conspicuous differential amounts occurred in numerous branches of the British postal service, prompting the group to accuse employees of theft. Although the managers in charge of the cash registers at the affected branches were unable to explain the differences, the Post did not investigate the system behind them, but demanded that employees reimburse the differences. According to a report in the British Guardian, more than 900 people have been sued and convicted in connection with the irregularities.

Some of the accused defended themselves against the accusations for years. Now, as a result, the verdict against 39 employees has been overturned: It is considered proven that a software error was the cause of the differential amounts. Due to the large number of those affected in total, according to the Guardian, as well as due to the background of the incident, this results in an enormous explosiveness. Already in December 2019, there had been a settlement with 555 other plaintiffs, to whom a sum of the equivalent of about 66 million euros was paid.

Post Office demanded proof of innocence

The British Post Office demanded proof of innocence from the employees it accused and refused to investigate possible mistakes of its own. In this context, it is also interesting to note that there were initial indications of an error in the software used by the Post as early as 2009. However, the company did not respond a year later with an investigation, but rather with a reference to the fact that the software was stable and that any differences were due to theft.

The role of Fujitsu, the company responsible for the software, has now also been criticized by the court. According to the court, the company had data that could have made the use of the system transparent and thus exonerated the defendants, but did not provide it. Furthermore, the court pointed out that Fujitsu had been able to change the booking data of the individual stores without the managers of the stores necessarily noticing this.

Simon Lüthje

I am co-founder of this blog and am very interested in everything that has to do with technology, but I also like to play games. I was born in Hamburg, but now I live in Bad Segeberg.

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For years, the British postal service accused numerous employees of theft. As a result, some were convicted. Now all the sentences have been overturned: Behind the seemingly missing amounts was not theft, but a software error. Differential amounts were the basis of the accusations Between the years 2000 and 2014, conspicuous differential amounts occurred in … (Weiterlesen...)

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