More than 1,000 subpostmasters might have utilized a previous malfunctioning computer system in their branches as more individuals step forward with details following Post Office scandal television drama
More than 1,000 subposmasters might have utilized the Post Office’s Capture software applicationas more information emerge about how they were blamed for inexplicable shortages on the system.
Following the current ITV drama about the Post Office Horizon scandal, a growing variety of previous subpostmasters and previous Post Office staff members are stepping forward with stories of issues they had with the Capture software application, which pre-dated the questionable Horizon system.
Explained by users as a “glorified spreadsheet”, Capture was a standalone software application utilized to computerise accounting in branches.
According to one source, IT provider Unisys supplied hardware with the Capture software application pre-installed, however the IT company was not associated with the advancement of the software application.
Unisys has actually not reacted to numerous ask for details, however a source informed Computer Weekly that from 1994 the variety of systems delivered by Unisys was “in the high hundreds, if not over 1,000”. The software application was presented in 1992, so the system might have been more extensively utilized.
The source stated that Unisys ran an evidence of principle of software application which didn’t work, losing out on the agreement as an outcome, and included that the Capture software application was most likely established at a Post Office centre called iTFarnborough.
Subpostmasters were blamed for unusual deficiencies that took place when utilizing the Capture software applicationwhich the Post Office understood the system was flawed. It still blamed and even prosecuted subpostmasters when auditors discovered inexplicable accounting deficiencies.
Stories have actually emerged now that the Post Office Horizon scandal remains in the general public eye. Steve Marston, a previous subpostmaster in Bury, Lancashire, was prosecuted in 1996 for theft and incorrect accounting following an inexplicable deficiency of almost ₤ 80,000. He stated he had actually never ever had any issues utilizing the paper-based accounting system up until his branch, which ranged from 1973, started utilizing the Capture system.
“We were pressed into utilizing it by the Post Office in 1996,” he stated, explaining it as a standalone system that needed subpostmasters to purchase their own computer systems to run the software application. Marston included that he felt pressured into utilizing the system at a time when lots of branches were being nearby the Post Office.
Computer system Weekly has actually consistently asked the Post Office for more information about the Capture system, including who established the software application, the number of branches it was utilized in and the number of individuals were prosecuted utilizing its information as proof. The Post Office has actually not addressed these concerns, however a representative stated: “We take really seriously any issues raised about cases from before the Horizo