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Fujitsu orders staff to retain Post Office-related documentation as it braces for legal action
Felipe Caparrós – stock.adobe.c
Japanese supplier tells all UK staff to preserve documents related to its work with the Post Office
Fujitsu has told its 5,000 UK staff not to delete, amend or alter any documents or communication relating to the Post Office, as it prepares for legal action.
The Japanese supplier, which is embroiled in the Post Office scandal, is being sued by former subpostmaster Lee Castleton, alongside the Post Office, with more legal action expected.
According to sources close to the company, an instruction sent recently to all Fujitsu UK staff said they must preserve all documents related to its work with the Post Office.
Staff were told “not to alter, delete, discard, shred, purge, modify or destroy any documents” which are “related or potentially related in any way” to Fujitsu’s relationship with the Post Office.
Last week, Castleton’s case, first announced in March, was launched. He is suing Fujitsu and the Post Office for £4m in damages over the Horizon IT scandal. This is the first case brought directly by a victim of the Post Office scandal and there are more considering following Castleton’s example.
One source, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “This signals that Fujitsu is preparing for further litigation following the damning Horizon scandal Public Inquiry revelations and the ongoing criminal investigations, conducted by The Metropolitan Police as part of Operation Olympos.”
Sir Alan Bates, founder of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance campaign group, which led the legal fight against the Post Office, said legal action against Fujitsu has been considered. “We decided to look into it at one point – it didn’t progress, but is always a possibility,” he said.
Previous attempt
Christopher Head, who ran a Post Office branch in Tyne and Wear before being wrongly accused of theft after an unexplained account shortfall, said: “I would consider it, but I have already attempted it and we raised £10m back in around 2020–2021 with a firm of solicitors, and we struggled to make a case as Fujitsu didn’t have a duty of care. If the legal position has changed, of course I would consider it again.”
Michael Rudkin, former subpostmaster and victim of the scandal, said he is considering “taking a leaf out of Lee Castleton’s book”. Rudkin and his wife Susan are currently fighting the Post Office for fair compensation, which he says is proving a “nightmare”.
In 2008, auditors turned up at Rudkin’s house and said there was a £44,000 shortfall at his branch in Ibstock, Leicestershire, and he was suspended. Rudkin was reinstated three months later, but he said there were problems balancing the accounts. In 2009, after experiencing unexplained account shortfalls, his wife Susan – who worked at the branch – was prosecuted for theft.
She was convicted, received a 12-month suspended sentence, was ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work and was placed on an electronically monitored curfew for six months. She has since had this wrongful conviction overturned.
On the possibility of legal action against Fujitsu and the Post Office, Rudkin said: “I would rather go to my grave a poor man than concede to their lies.”
Fujitsu’s responsibility
Former subpostmaster Jo Hamilton said if Fujitsu paid its share of the costs of the scandal there would be less need for individual victims to take legal action against it. “Fujitsu should pay half the cost,” she added. “The government should turn around and order it to do this rather than giving it new contracts.”
Computer Weekly asked Fujitsu whether it has prepared for potential losses in civil cases brought or expected by former subpostmasters and how it will ensure evidence which could be relevant is protected and retained, but it had not responded when this article was published.
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 Horizon accounting software, which led to the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history (see below timeline of Computer Weekly articles about the scandal since 2009).
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