Angela van den Bogerd, a former executive of the Post Office, issued a formal apology for the wrongful convictions of over 700 subpostmasters, a controversy highlighted during the ongoing Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry.
Angela van den Bogerd, a former top executive at the Post Office, testified at the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry in London, apologising for the “devastation” caused by the Horizon scandal. This scandal, which lasted from 1999 to 2015, wrongfully led to over 700 subpostmasters being criminally convicted based on errors in the Horizon IT system, and although over 100 convictions have been quashed, many affected are still awaiting compensation.
Testimony during the inquiry revealed that previous top executive Paula Vennells had opposed suggestions to halt the prosecutions of sub-postmasters. The inquiry also uncovered criticism from Chris Aujard, formerly the Post Office’s top in-house lawyer, regarding the ongoing prosecutions and the dismissal of the independent forensic accountants, Second Sight, which contributed to identifying the scandal.
The probe unveiled a culture within the Post Office that likely facilitated these wrongful convictions. Angela van den Bogerd, who departed her role in 2020, expressed her frustrations with the compensation process. Despite her apology, she stated that she never knowingly acted improperly during her tenure at the Post Office and had performed to the best of her ability under the circumstances.
The case has attracted significant public interest, highlighted by the successful ITV drama “Mr Bates vs The Post Office”, which dramatized the impact of the scandal, although leading to a financial loss for ITV despite high viewer numbers in the UK.
The inquiry continues to explore the vast repercussions of this major legal misstep in UK history, seeking to provide answers and justice to the wrongfully convicted subpostmasters.
