Post Office told staff to shred key documents that could have helped workers defend themselves against prosecution amid IT scandal, court hears

• Post Office staff shredded key documents that could have helped postmasters defend themselves against prosecutions, a court has heard 
• Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds of postmasters were sacked or prosecuted
• Post Office bosses were told glitches in Horizon terminals may be to blame
• Jo Hamilton among those who are battling to clear their names in court

Post Office staff shredded key documents that could have helped postmasters defend themselves against prosecutions, a court has heard.

Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds of postmasters were sacked or prosecuted after money appeared to go missing from their branches.

The Post Office was told glitches in its Horizon computer system may have been to blame but pursued prosecutions anyway.

Now evidence has emerged that Post Office staff were ordered to destroy documents in 2013 to protect the company’s reputation.

Post Office staff shredded key documents that could have helped postmasters defend themselves against prosecutions, a court has heard 

It came as the Court of Appeal began hearing the cases of 42 former subpostmasters whose convictions were referred to it by the Criminal Cases Review Commission last year after a landmark civil action against the Post Office.

The firm was told the destruction of documents could constitute a ‘conspiracy to pervert the course of justice’.

Sam Stein QC, representing five of the postmasters, told the court yesterday: ‘The Post Office’s reaction is one of dishonesty and destruction and shredding of documents. You cannot see this any other way.’

Now evidence has emerged that Post Office staff were ordered to destroy documents in 2013 to protect the company’s reputation. Pictured: Jo Hamilton, one of those involved in the Court of Appeal case, was blamed for a £36,000 shortfall at her post office

I was put through hell 

Jo Hamilton, 63, one of those involved in the Court of Appeal case, was blamed for a £36,000 shortfall at her post office in South Warnborough, Hampshire, and charged with false accounting in 2008.

She was sure the Horizon computer system was to blame but pleaded guilty, fearing jail if she did not, and was put on probation for a year.

She has since been barred from some jobs and, as a convict, cannot visit her grandchildren’s school.

She said: ‘I want to see people held to account. They’ve put me and others through hell.’

The prosecutions led to the break-up of marriages, bankruptcy and for ‘some to take their own lives’ and ‘the Post Office has now turned itself into the nation’s most untrustworthy brand’, Mr Stein said.

All but four of the appeals are unopposed, meaning at least 38 will have their convictions overturned when the judgment is passed down on April 23. 

The order to shred documents came after the Post Office followed legal advice to make a central database of errors and bugs in its IT system.

Bosses set up weekly meetings to discuss progress but after the third an order was made to destroy evidence of them, the court heard.

The Post Office’s legal adviser wrote: ‘An instruction was then given that those emails and minutes should be, and have been, destroyed. The word ‘shredded’ was conveyed to me. Handwritten minutes were not to be typed and should be forwarded to the Post Office’s head of security.’

He said he was told that ‘if it’s not minuted it’s not in the public domain and therefore not disclosable’ and that ‘if it’s produced it’s available for disclosure’.

The Post Office has already paid a £58million settlement to 557 postmasters after an acrimonious High Court battle and faces a further 2,400 claims.

The Post Office said: ‘We sincerely apologise for historical failings and have taken determined action to address the past.’ The case continues.

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