UK Says Fujitsu Must Pay If It’s Blamed for Post Office Scandal
- Company’s faulty Horizon software led to wrongful prosecutions
- Public inquiry will conclude if Japanese company is culpable
Fujitsu is now facing calls to be banned from any new government contracts, having won £6.8 billion of work for the UK’s public sector since 2012.
Photographer: Haruyoshi Yamaguchi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Fujitsu Ltd. will have to compensate hundreds of British Post Office managers who were wrongly convicted of theft if a public inquiry finds the Japanese company responsible, UK government ministers have said.
The Tokyo-based technology giant has supplied a computer system, known as Horizon, to UK Post Offices since around the turn of the millennium. Faults in the system led to branch managers, known as sub-postmasters, being accused of stealing. Hundreds were bankrupted, jailed, and some took their own lives.