Were The Sub-Postmasters' Contracts Legal

[377Ohms]

If the Sub-Postmasters could not audit the enforced accounting system - then by implication the Contract which enforced the use of the accounting system is not legal... This would put the Post Office in the wrong before any business transactions had taken place - hmmm.

[barry1010]

The Post Office refused to believe that the postmasters could not audit the accounts using Horizon.  The Post Office believed they were stealing.

[Ken4155]

One of the lawyers said more or less that the contracts were illegal from the get-go.

[ToraToraTora]

The contracts may well have been illegal but the main issue was that they were allowed to prosecute with zero evidence. The only thing that saved Alan Bates was that he refused to agree to or sign anything, insisting on them explainig how the figures were arrived at. It would have been a simple thing to analyse the ledger and find the anomilies and then determine their origin. The PO refused point blank to supply any evidence and just shut him down anyway. Of course in his case they could not prosecute so the just booted him out.

[Peter Pedant]

One of the lawyers said more or less that the contracts were illegal from the get-go.

He said ( I think) that various clauses were not compliant with the 1977 Unfair contract clauses Act

but THAT as far as I can remember allows a contract to be repaired ( that clause is unenforceable) - it seemed obvous no one had tried it during a case.

ALOT gave up and pleaded guilty to false accounting. [ and a further lot have not applied for the convictions to be thrown out and for  compensation although in both cases it involves filling out a form.

(it is very difficult to turn something back if you have said yes I did it)

 

[Peter Pedant]

Now you can get a whole contract slung out if there have been misrepresentations made before the contract is signed

and I suppose that an implied guarantee that the computer program wd work probably ( altho the judge says early on it that would be a miracle)

and so the contract is slung out

and so the sub post master now has 50 000 transactions not  governed by any contract - a judge I suggest wd find that unlikely.

We dont know the time scale in this dwarma, and I think they fingered the ctr program relatively late in the game (oh well  you WD say that etc)

[Ellipsis]

I'd like to look at that contract, not to see what the Sub-postmasters' responsibilities were, but to see what the Post Office's responsibilities were!

Likewise, I'd like to see the contract between the Post Office and Fujitsu.

I would expect, in one contract if not both, that Fujitsu and/or the Post Office were in breach of contract ...

So disregarding the contract might not be the best idea ...

[Peter Pedant]

Post office - Fuju is another matter and nothing to do with the subs.