Police investigating the Horizon Post Office scandal have identified seven suspects, with at least 45 individuals listed as “persons of interest”, it has emerged.
Metropolitan Commander Stephen Clayman, the police officer leading the investigation, said there was a “pool of about 45 people plus” classed as “persons of interest” which was “expected to grow”, Sky News reported.
“We’ve got over four million documents that are going to rise to about six million documents, but we’re beginning to methodically work through those and looking at individuals who are associated with certain prosecutions,” he said.
However criminal trials over the scandal may not start until 2028, Clayman told the BBC.
He said police would have to go through the final reports from the public inquiry, due to be published in coming months, “meticulously”, and then hand files to the Crown Prosecution Service before waiting for a court date.
“Other large investigations linked to a public inquiry have exactly the same thing. And I really do understand the frustration for those who are at the centre of this, who are the victims.”
Last year, Clayman had warned that no criminal trials linked to the Post Office Horizon scandal would take place until after the public inquiry has published its final report.
Four suspects have been interviewed under caution since 2021, with the most recent in this year.
More than 900 sub-postmasters were prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 after faulty Horizon accounting software made it look as though money was missing from their accounts.
Clayman said the police started with “those at the front line – the Post Office investigators, solicitors, those who were involved in the immediate decision-making”.
He said the investigation is now “beginning to scope looking at wider management. That will happen, and is happening, it will just take time to get there.”
Earlier this week a committee of MPs said plans to compensate subpostmasters wronged by the Horizon IT scandal are “still moving far too slowly”.
The Department of Business and Trade (DBT) needs to “outline what more it will do to ensure every affected postmaster” is aware of their options for redress, according to the public accounts committee.
The Government announced earlier this month that more than £1 billion has been paid out to subpostmasters across the Horizon-related schemes.
Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 subpostmasters were prosecuted after faulty Horizon accounting software made it look as though money was missing from their accounts. Many are still awaiting compensation.
Committee chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown has described the scandal as “one of the UK’s worst ever miscarriages of justice” as “thousands of people were failed deeply by the system”.
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