Provider of faulty computer system apologizes to hundreds affected by UK Post Office scandal

LONDON (AP) — Fujitsu, the company whose faulty computer accounting system resulted in the wrongful conviction of hundreds of Post Office branch managers across the U.K., apologized to the victims on Tuesday for its role in the one of the country’s biggest miscarriages of justice and said it was long aware that the software had bugs.

Paul Patterson, Europe director of Japan’s Fujitsu Ltd., told a committee of lawmakers that the company will provide funds to compensate branch managers, some of whom were imprisoned for theft or fraud for the failures of the accounting software that was first introduced in 1999.

“I think there is a moral obligation for the company to contribute,” said Patterson, who has been in post since 2019. “To the sub-postmasters and their families, Fujitsu would like to apologize for our part in this appalling miscarriage of justice.”

Patterson said he had spoken with his bosses in Japan and that Fujitsu knew “from the very start” that the system, known as Horizon, had “bugs and errors,” and that, despite that, had helped the Post Office in its prosecutions of branch managers after unexplained losses were found in their accounts.

“For that we are truly sorry,” he said.

Though Patterson’s admission was welcomed by lawmakers, he and Post Office Chief Executive Nick Read, who has also been in his post since 2019, were criticized for failing to be more precise about the chronology of the scandal.

Read said the Post Office has drastically changed over the past few years and has earmarked around a billion pounds ($1.3 billion) for compensation. He also confirmed it would not pursue any further prosecutions and that it is actively looking to replace the much-altered Horizon system in its branches.

An official