‘Ignored’ IT expert claims he warned Post Office of Horizon flaws 20 years ago

An IT expert claims he warned the Post Office of flaws in the Horizon scheme 20 years ago, but was ignored.

Jason Coyne analysed data for the Cleveleys branch in Lancashire in 2003, and found what he described as “significant discrepancies” in the software.

In an interview with ITV on Wednesday (January 10), Mr Coyne said: “I feel very sad that action wasn’t taken back in 2003 because the data was there.”

More than 700 sub-postmasters were wrongly convicted of fraud and theft between 1999 and 2015 after a fault in the Horizon software created discrepancies in their accounts, making it look like money was missing.