Postmasters turn to CCTV for protection from Horizon

HUNDREDS of postmasters have installed CCTV behind their counters to protect themselves from future Horizon errors, a sub-postmaster has claimed.

Richard Trinder, who runs a branch in Sheffield, spent £2,500 two years ago on security cameras, allowing him to monitor his counter.

The 63-year-old, who runs the campaign group Voice of The Postmaster, told The Telegraph: “The decision was motivated by a need to ensure I could cover myself if there ever was a shortfall and I know hundreds of other sub-postmasters have done the same.

“While the Post Office says this upgraded version of Horizon is meant to be more robust that still doesn’t instil a lot of confidence. There is still a deep culture of mistrust between sub-postmasters and the Post Office.”

More than 900 sub-postmasters were prosecuted after being wrongfully blamed for false shortfalls produced by Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon system.

Mr Trinder also admitted any discrepancies in his daily cash count, can be “heart-stopping”. He said: “It is something that really struck me when I watched Mr Bates vs The Post Office, that feeling of panic you can get when you are going through the daily cash count.

“A discrepancy might just be caused by human error, but it doesn’t stop you being affected when you get that heart-stopping message that says, ‘This declaration does not match the system derived figure.’”

Mr Trinder’s revelation follows another tumultuous week for the Post Office. Henry Staunton, its former chairman, appeared in public for the first time since telling The Sunday Times that he had been asked to stall compensation payments for Horizon victims ahead of the next General Election.

At a select committee meeting on Tuesday, Mr Staunton told MPs that Nick Read, the Post Office’s chief executive, was under investigation by the organisation’s own HR department.

Mr Staunton also claimed Mr Read threatened to resign several times and was unhappy with his pay.

Kevin Hollinrake, the Post Office minister, revealed that Mr Read had demanded his salary be doubled from £415,000 to £830,000. The requested raise was denied by Grant Shapps, the then business secretary.

A Post Office spokesman said it was the organisation’s “long-stated intent” to replace Horizon with a cloud-based system. He added: “There have been several versions of Horizon since its introduction in 1999 and the current version, introduced from 2017, was found in the group litigation to be robust, relative to comparable systems.

“We are now much more transparent when it comes to alerting postmasters about bugs with the Horizon system.”