Police are currently investigating 45 people in relation to potential crimes in the Post Office scandal, with seven so far formally identified as suspects.
The national police investigation, known as Operation Olympos, was announced last year by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), which is spearheading the work alongside the Metropolitan Police.
The team of 100 officers from across the country originally had 1.5 million documents to review, which has now reached the six million mark, after initial investigation. The number of documents and suspects is expected to rise, according to a NPCC statement.
The Post Office scandal saw hundreds of subpostmasters wrongfully prosecuted due to unexplained account shortfalls that were caused by errors in the Horizon system. Thousands lost their livelihoods and had their lives turned upside down after repaying the unexplained losses. Around 900 were wrongfully convicted of financial crimes and many were jailed as a result of the miscarriages of justice. It is described as the widest miscarriage of justice in UK history.
Victims central to investigation
Commander Stephen Clayman, who is leading Operation Olympos, said: “Victims remain at the heart of this investigation and our contact with the many people affected by the Post Office Horizon scandal continues to increase.”
The entire investigation team met this week in person for the first time to “reaffirm our focus on the investigative strategy and discuss next steps”, he added.
So far, four individuals have been interviewed – two in late 2021, one in late 2024 and the fourth earlier this year.
“Formally identifying a suspect and preparing to question them takes a significant amount of time due to the volume of material and enquiries necessary, so these numbers will continue to rise as the team’s work progresses,” said Clayman. “We are making progress and laying the foundations for what is to come.”
The police previously stated the investigation was set up to initially look at the potential crimes of perjury and perverting the course of justice, focused on “key individuals” involved in subpostmaster prosecutions. Phase two sets out to investigate wider offences.
Police have not ruled out investigating the Post Office for fraud in relation to its policy of forcing subpostmasters to repay unexplained shortfalls. In October, during a public inquiry hearing, former Post Office CEO Nick Read said it had so far been established that the Post Office took around £36m between 1999 and 2015 from subpostmasters, who were forced to cover shortfalls in their accounts that didn’t actually exist.
In December, Clayman said police will “go where the evidence takes” them, with no person or crime out of the scope of the investigation. Individuals from the Post Office and Fujitsu and potentially others will be within scope of an investigation that could will cover more than 20 years of evidence.
Years in the making
As Computer Weekly revealed in 2020, the Met Police began assessing evidence of potential perjury offences committed by Fujitsu staff in criminal trials of subpostmasters prosecuted for accounting errors caused by a computer system.
In January that year, the director of public prosecutions (DPP) referred the concerns of High Court judge Peter Fraser about the accuracy of evidence given by Fujitsu staff in criminal trials to the Metropolitan Police. This followed his judgment that found errors in the Horizon system had caused the unexplained branch account shortfalls experienced by subpostmasters.
Three months later, the Met Police began assessing evidence of potential perjury offences and in November 2021, it opened a criminal investigation into Fujitsu staff who gave evidence in trials of subpostmasters. These were tech workers Gareth Jenkins and Anne Chambers.
Last year, the Metropolitan Police announced a national investigation – now known as Operation Olympos – into the Post Office scandal. This followed public outrage stoked by ITV’s dramatisation of the Post Office scandal.
The Post Office scandal was first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009, revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffered due to the accounting software (see timeline of Computer Weekly articles about the scandal below).