Software bugs were hidden from lawyers of wrongly convicted UK postal workers.

A lot of people in the UK prosecutors offices and post office management should be going to prison.

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    234·
    10 months ago

    This has been going on for twenty-five years. The system was originally rolled out in 1999. I’ve been hearing stuff about this case off and on for about a decade now.

    Why the living fuck isn’t everyone involved with every step of this process behind bars.

    The wildest shit is it’s not even Fujitsu to blame! It’s some fucking idiots in charge at Royal Mail who literally fraudulently edited statements from Fujitsu to claim that there were no errors and the system was working.

    They used these false statements as justification to prosecute, imprison, and fine hundreds of Postal Employees.

    What a waste of time, money, resources, and human fucking life.

    • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
      98·
      10 months ago

      Fujitsu aren’t blameless, not at all. They were going into user’s accounts and fiddling figures, correcting the errors the software made.

      Then when a sub-postmaster went to their office and saw this, they retaliated by setting his account to debit and erased records of him being there. It may well be that many of the victims were targeted for complaining that the system was flawed.

    • EnderMB@lemmy.worldEnglish
      44·
      10 months ago

      What infuriates me is that the only reason anyone gave a shit is because ITV made a (frankly, okayish) drama about the scandal. Now, politicians are ripping the law apart to save face, alongside trying to point fingers away from those responsible. Jail time is absolutely needed. People have had their entire careers ruined by this, and while they all deserve a huge payout, no amount of money will fix the damage caused.

    • DontMakeMoreBabies@kbin.social
      312·
      10 months ago

      I’d be so pissed if I ended up prosecuting a case and found out later the cops gave me bunk evidence. Not only is that a huge injustice, it’s a waste of time when there are REAL issues to deal with.

      But I also am not sure I’d go straight to hanging the prosecutors unless they knew and still charged.

      Because while yes, prosecutors should know their cases, at some point folks have to be able to rely on ‘experts’ (and most prosecutors I’ve met are… Not great with tech so they are gonna rely on the expertise of others when it comes to this sort of thing).

    • phx@lemmy.caEnglish
      13·
      10 months ago

      Yeah what’s the charges for destruction of evidence? This should absolutely be treated as a criminal matter

    • Coasting0942@reddthat.comEnglish
      10·
      10 months ago

      Why the living fuck isn’t everyone involved with every step of this process behind bars.

      Im so confused. They’ve been trying to arrest as many QA people as possible 😎

    • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      10 months ago

      Weren’t there also Fujitsu employees in the Braknell office also remote connecting to Horizon terminals and post offices and fucking with the numbers in there?

  • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.worldEnglish
    155·
    10 months ago

    That goes back to 1999, when the Horizon software system was installed in post offices by Fujitsu subsidiary International Computers Limited. From 1999 to 2015, Fujitsu’s faulty accounting software aided in the prosecution and conviction of more than 900 sub-postmasters and postmistresses who were accused of theft or fraud when the software wrongly made it appear that money was missing from their branches.

    During the prosecutions, courts hearing cases against postal employees “were not told of 29 bugs identified as early as 1999 in the system it built,” The Guardian wrote in a summary of Patterson’s testimony today. The article said:

    When bugs were acknowledged, witness statements from Fujitsu staff due to be heard in court were then edited by the Post Office as it sought to maintain the line that the system was working well as it pursued innocent people through the courts.

      • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        64·
        10 months ago

        That really sounds like those that edited those testimonies and those that ordered the edits should be going to prison because holy shit that’s bad

        • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
          131·
          10 months ago

          Sure, and that’s what I would have done next if someone didn’t extract the key detail I was looking for

          When a story is relevant to me I’ll still go and read the article. Otherwise I can get the details I need, as well as extra context, from the comment sections

  • zbyte64@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    81·
    10 months ago

    Proprietary software makers: our software is more secure than open source because the public can’t go looking for bugs to exploit.

    Proprietary software:

  • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
    49·
    10 months ago

    Also people from Fujitsu committed perjury in court.

  • JackGreenEarth@lemm.eeEnglish
    15·
    10 months ago

    It’s what happens when you have a ‘justice’ system which is biased in favour of people with more money to spend on lawyers - literally pay to win. It’s unthinkable that in such a democratic society our justice system could still be this way, biased against poor people.

    • Trabic@lemm.eeEnglish
      4·
      10 months ago

      It’s really good, but at the same time so infuriating that I had trouble sleeping after watching an episode.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    71·
    10 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Right from the very start of deployment of the system, there were bugs and errors and defects, which were well-known to all parties," said Paul Patterson, co-CEO of Fujitsu’s European division.

    During the prosecutions, courts hearing cases against postal employees “were not told of 29 bugs identified as early as 1999 in the system it built,” The Guardian wrote in a summary of Patterson’s testimony today.

    Asked by the lead counsel of the public inquiry, Jason Beer KC, whether he agreed that this was shameful, Patterson, who has worked at the company for 14 years, said: "That would be one word I would use.

    A Financial Times article said that the public inquiry “heard in December last year that the Post Office’s lawyers had rewritten Fujitsu witness statements.”

    Earlier this week, Patterson told UK Parliament members that "Fujitsu would like to apologize for our part in this appalling miscarriage of justice.

    Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake, the MP for Thirsk and Malton, told the BBC that his “number one priority” is to “try and get compensation and get answers for people.”

    The original article contains 736 words, the summary contains 181 words. Saved 75%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

      • EdibleFriend@lemmy.worldEnglish
        16·
        10 months ago

        If this becomes a right and just world? Yes. In reality this has been a known thing for decades and its still going on because…thats the world we live in.

        Some people will get a slap on the wrist, some will get promotions, and the people who are wrongly convicted will be handed a few bucks and told to watch their ass.

      • Kyrgizion@lemmy.worldEnglish
        9·
        10 months ago

        This is the UK, not the US. There will be little to no fallout from this, and the victims will be threatened with consequences for speaking out.