‘I knew something was wrong’: first witness in Post office hearing breaks down

theguardian.com:

A Post Office operator wrongly accused of false accounting tearfully told an inquiry how he was left to pick up a bill for £17,000 due to flaws within the Post Office system.

Between 2000 and 2014, more than 700 Post Office operators were prosecuted based on information from the Horizon IT system, installed and maintained by Fujitsu.

However, in December 2019, a high court judge ruled that Horizon’s system contained a number of “bugs, errors and defects” and there was a “material risk” that shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts were caused by the system.

Baljit Sethi, 69, and his wife Anjana, 67, who have three children, ran a branch near Romford in Essex from 1983. Baljit Sethi, the first witness to give evidence at the inquiry in central London, cried as he told how running it had been the “the best time” of his life as he was popular in the community.

In 2001, the Sethis took on another branch in Brentwood, which after one year showed a hole in the accounts of £17,000, which the couple were asked to cover out of their own pocket.

Baljit Sethi, who was never charged, told the inquiry he tried to communicate with the head office in Chelmsford, after noticing a problem with the system.

He broke down in tears as he went on to say: “I was the only man who ran the Post Office seven days a week. “I used to open it at 8am and shut at 8pm. I was the only Post Office in the country running all seven days.”

Baljit Sethi, whose contract was terminated, added: “I knew there was something wrong with the system but no one wanted to know that.”

Dozens of Post Office operators have had criminal convictions overturned.

The inquiry is expected to run for the rest of this year and will look into whether the Post Office knew about faults in