Companies

Fujitsu U.K. Unit CEO to Testify over Post Office Horizon Scandal

REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
The Head Office of Fujitsu Services is seen in Bracknell Britain, January 10, 2024.

Jiji Press

17:34 JST, January 12, 2024

LONDON (Jiji Press) — Paul Patterson, CEO of a British unit of Fujitsu Ltd., is set to testify at a House of Commons committee meeting Tuesday over a high-profile case in which numerous post office managers in Britain were wrongly charged with cash theft.

The false accusations resulted from a flawed accounting system supplied by the Japanese technology giant. Patterson also serves as a corporate executive officer at the Japanese parent company.

Other witnesses at the Business and Trade Committee meeting will include Nick Read, CEO of Britain’s mail service company, Kevin Hollinrake, British minister for enterprise, markets and small business, and former post office managers who were falsely charged, the British lower house committee said Thursday.

In the case that took place between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 people, including post office managers, were falsely charged for fraud or embezzlement following the discovery of discrepancies between cash balances at counters and accounting records at post offices that introduced Fujitsu’s Horizon accounting system.

Although the gaps were later found to have resulted from a defect in the Horizon system, only some of the accused people had their convictions revoked.