The Great Post Office Scandal - the extraordinary story behind the recent ITV drama: The fight to expose a multimillion pound IT disaster which put innocent people in jail

Firstly, I would suggest to potential purchasers that they disregard the 1 and 2 star reviews. This very well-written tome is as long as it NEEDS to be in order to convey the complexity and horror of what has correctly been described as ‘the greatest miscarriage of justice in British history’.This 500 page nicely presented book (consisting of dozens of short sharp chapters) constitutes a fascinating precursor/supplement to the brilliant ‘Mr Bates’ ITV drama. Amongst much else, it succinctly deals with many of the legal issues (e.g. the statutory requirement of ‘disclosure’) that lie at the heart of the ongoing official Post Office I.T. Inquiry.I’ve found this timely book a real page-turner.

We've all heard something about this scandal, but Nick Wallis has been on the case since it was first properly broken in Computer Weekly in 2009. And this is a very readable - and appalling reading it is - account of the criminally destructive campaign waged by the bullies employed by our Post Office against hundreds of Sub-postmasters. Their crime was to use the wretched Horizon IT system, which the PO and its contractors - Fujitsu - claimed could never make a mistake.This came after a pretty notorious decade or more which demonstrated that many of the public sector IT projects rolled out did make mistakes, often so many that they had to be scrapped at costs of £millions.So the government and management of the PO decided to refuse to acknowledge that theirs was fallible, and ruthlessly prosecute anyone whose Horizon till claimed they owed it money - without a shred of corroborating evidence. Many were sent to prison, and had their lives and those of their families ruined by this awful, inhumane policy.The PO - with government collusion - then set about making the process of getting redress as difficult and expensive as possible, all at a huge cost to the taxpayer, and they still haven't finished.This book should be force-fed to all those responsible for the wholly unjustifiable suffering and misery they knowingly caused, all in a bid to keep their own reputations intact. Though the author does not make any political points himself, the nastiness and greed of "the establishment" comes through loud and clear.

This is an excellent account of what happened ive followed this story and this guy absolutely nails it all.

This book is a real eye opener. It's very well written and easy to read. My only regret is that it finished before the public enquirey. I hope the author follows it up with a part 2 when it's all over, however that could still be a long way off!

I think Wallis handles a complex train of events that took place over a twenty year period very well. I liked how he stuck to a rigid timeline in telling the story. Without that I think it would have been difficult to follow however it does mean he revisits some events that often span several years. He also disperses individual victims stories along the timeline thus giving some relief from the harrowing experiences of the victims. I found a lot of new material in this book despite having seen the TV drama and having read many articles on the subject. It answers many of the questions I had both technical and legal. His account exposes the actions of both Fujitsu and POL employees and managers as immoral and corrupt.My only criticism is that he does not elaborate on the Fujitsu whistle blower's account of hacking the PO record. Some more explanation required of how he did it as most readers will not understand the process. Also some explanation of what discrepancy he was trying to fix is missing. I found his handling of a crucial event - a subpostmistress who used Horizon for eight years without a discrepancy and who on transferring her business temporarily during a refit suddenly encountered a series of "losses" - rather unstaisfactory. Surely more comment about how this happened and how significant this was is justified. That aside I found this a comprehensive and valuable read in understanding how this tragic failure happened. Definitely not for those wanting a quick overview of the subject though. Read only if you want the detail. It is not an easy or quick read.

I couldn’t wait to read the next page as the research was so compulsive to explain how this awful disaster happened. I have nothing but disgust with all the government Ministers, Fujitsu and mainly the Post Office senior Management. Those involved should go to jail and personally hand back all the money that was supposed to be lost, but didn’t exist.Nothing will ever undo how cruel they were to innocent people.

I railed, I cried, I despaired. These events evidence the worst of human nature and the best - alas, mainly the worst. For such a complex story, it is incredibly easy to read (reminds me of 'The Big Short' by Michael Lewis). This book should be compulsory reading by all MPs, civil servants, lawyers, solicitors, judges, qualified accountants, company directors (exec and non exec), company secretaries, teachers, doctors, surgeons, police, councillors, BBC employees, journalists, anyone with an honour (OBE etc).In particular, all those from the Post Office involved in the current public inquiry should be made to read it and - since their word is not to be trusted - tested to ensure that they have indeed read it.At the risk of loading poor teachers with yet more work, I strongly believe that school education should include ethics. I was part of a group rolling out an ethical programme in my company for the first time back in the early 2000's. 'The best way of testing whether you are behaving ethically, is to imagine that the general public is watching and consider how you would explain yourself'. Well, those Post Office people are certainly being given the opportunity to demonstrate the validity of this principle.

A book that everyone should read , it is so well written . A book that I couldn't put down and when I did I couldn't wait to get back too.

A couple months ago, I watched the PBS series “Mr Bates vs The Post Office" on PBS. I did not know of this debacle and was floored by the treatment of sub-postmasters and the subsequent coverup.I immediately ordered the book, which I managed to finish in about six weeks time.The book went into deep detail about those wrongly affected. The stance that the Post Office and British government took to hide this scandal were nearly overwhelming. Many honest people had their lives shattered.The author’s dedication and research in following the sub-postmasters and the various players for 20-plus years should be commended and this story should be known widely. However, as with other deliberate scandals, those who are responsible rarely have their feet held to the fire.America is getting to be such a mess that it’s difficult to find someone who cares about a scandal across the ocean. And our next presidential election may determine whether we will have investigative reporting or a ‘free press’ in our future.I made a one-time donation to help the sub-postmaster fund. The saga continues, so I signed up for the author’s newsletter so I can follow events from this point on.If you want to read about people who are way overdue for justice, then buy this book.

This well-written book tells the harrowing story of innocent people caught up in the net of a malfunctioning computer system, technical ineptitude and neglicence and a corporate culture of misguided loyalty and paranoid secrecy. Disentangling it took over 20 years, cost millions of pounds and needed two epic court battles. The victims are still suffering and the process of compensation and closure is far from over. As a former postal clerk and now a software engineer this story of a software and its creators destroying the lives of hundreds of subpostmasters made a deep impression on me and Nick Wallis has delivered an engaging read and gives the many victims a face and a voice. Highly recommended.

I very well written book which exposes the Post Office's scandalous behaviour, Fujitsu's incompetence and the governments appalling lack of oversight. What is most disturbing is perhaps the abuse of the judiciary system by the Post Office and their legal advisors. I had diminishing confidence in the United Kingdom's sense of fairness and justice. This book, sadly, has confirmed that view.

couldn't read in the evening as too upsetting

A