I guess some people never learn from trying to cover their mistakes as children. I've explained this to my kids: often the initial mistake is minor and warrants

I guess some people never learn from trying to cover their mistakes as children. I've explained this to my kids: often the initial mistake is minor and warrants nothing more than "please don't do that again". It is the lying and hiding that blow it up into a big issue. The odds of being found out are very high. There is little reward and lots of risk. When you have such a widespread and ongoing problem it becomes clear that such a large proportion of postmasters can't be criminals. Computer bugs are well known. Eventually it is going to come out that the computer is wrong. Why double-down? The earlier you admit a mistake and apologize the lower the impact and the less anyone cares. They had a built-in scapegoat that everyone understands and accepts: the vendor's software had bugs! We have daily meetings to yell at them to fix the bugs we promise and we will fix the problems ASAP. Or do the sneaky thing and fix the issues, stop prosecuting postmasters, and ignore the ones you prosecuted by mistake. Cynical, cruel, and immoral... but contains the damage. Instead the UK Postoffice seems to have just let the problems continue while simultaneously allowing prosecutions to go ahead knowing they were faulty. Literally the worst of all worlds: ongoing accumulation of liability, now with provable malice!