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The strange fact is that the Post Office runs its own court system, I take it many people didn't realise this. Having worked through the thicket of rules for F

• switch007 3y ago
  What exactly is meant by "its own court system"? Nothing is coming up when I Google.
• amiga386 3y ago
  It's not that it runs its own court system, but the Post Office was allowed to bring private prosecutions, which is to say a private individual or organization can bring criminal law cases to court as well as vastly more common civil law cases. More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prosecution#United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prosecution#United_Kin... What the Post Office did have, though, is its own centuries-old investigation team, and much of the scandal hinges on the fact that these investigators are employees of the Post Office and likely knew the accounting system was faulty, and those faults could explain supposed losses, but deliberately disregarded that in bullying and prosecuting subpostmasters into accepting liability for phantom losses.
  • tialaramex 3y ago
    Also, as well as in practice exercising control over the Post Office as its owners, the Government is responsible for the Crown Prosecutors, the people who usually carry out criminal prosecutions. For a long time now Crown Prosecutors have been able to seize any existing criminal cases (prosecuted by somebody else) in order to terminate it. They could have stepped in, taken over the case, said "This seems like bullshit" and terminated the prosecution. That's still awful for the postmasters, who have faced a threat of prosecution, but it means none of them would go to jail. Governments of the day did not do this either.
  • AdamN 3y ago
    Seems like those investigators should be the target of public prosecution
  • nullc 3y ago
    > but the Post Office was allowed to bring private prosecutions, As is everyone in the UK.