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A former top Post Office executive has denied lying “throughout” her two days of testimony at the inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal.
Angela van den Bogerd, who held various roles over 35 years at the organisation, told the hearing that while she did miss evidence of problems with the computer software at the time, it had not been “intentional”.
Her roles at the Post Office included handling complaints about the Horizon system, which was provided by Japanese firm Fujitsu.
More than 700 Post Office managers were prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 after the software made it seem like money was missing from branches. At the time, the company insisted Horizon was robust.
Edward Henry KC, representing some of those wrongly convicted, accused Ms van den Bogerd of telling a “blatant lie” in a September 2015 letter sent to former sub-postmaster Parmod Kalia.
Mr Kalia spent three months in prison after being falsely accused of stealing £22,000 from his London branch in 2001.
In the letter, the former executive said there was “no evidence of transactions recorded by branches being altered through remote access” – despite her receiving emails years earlier which highlighted the issue.
Mr Henry said: “It’s a blatant lie, isn’t it?”
She replied: “That’s my understanding of what I’d been given at the time.”
As he questioned her further about what she knew and when, Mr Henry said: “You’re lying again today, as you have done throughout, I suggest.
“Do you have any idea of the suffering you have caused, the many lives that have been blighted, with you contributing to that pain and that cruelty? Do you have any idea?”
As it happened: Post Office inquiry latest
Ms van den Bogerd replied: “I appreciate the level of suffering that would inevitably happen as a result of prosecutions” but said she was never involved in prosecutions.
She added she had worked to understand whether…
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