Victims of second faulty Post Office software system Capture promised ‘redress and justice’
Share:
The business secretary said Capture, the system which came before Horizon, could have also created accounting shortfalls for sub-postmasters who used it. Postmasters who were victims of faulty accounting software before the Horizon scandal have been promised redress by ministers.
![[Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has pledged to provide redress for victims of the Capture IT system]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/17/10/276730c8052d4bc79f5825514ce60109Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM0NTE3Mjcy-2.78175573.jpg)
The business secretary has recognised that Capture, the system which came before Horizon, could have also created accounting shortfalls for sub-postmasters who used it. Jonathan Reynolds on Tuesday promised to "work quickly to provide redress and justice to those who have suffered greatly after being wrongly accused".
Capture was rolled out in Post Office branches in 1992, before being replaced by Fujitsu’s Horizon software in 1999. The Post Office-Horizon scandal saw hundreds of sub-postmasters wrongfully convicted of fraud, theft and false accounting over more than a decade.
Many lost their livelihoods, their life savings, their reputations and even went to jail. A lengthy public inquiry into the scandal has revealed the Horizon software was faulty and created false shortfalls in their accounts. As of this month, £500m has been paid out to 3,300 victims across a series of compensation schemes.
Ministers commissioned an independent report into Capture earlier this year after postmasters came forward claiming they had suffered similar problems to those faced by the Horizon victims. The Kroll report concluded that the older software could have created shortfalls.
