More than 45 people linked to Post Office scandal under criminal investigation, police say
More than 45 individuals are under criminal investigation in connection with the Post Office Horizon scandal, with seven formally identified as suspects, according to the Met Police and National Police Chiefs' Council.
Commander Stephen Clayman, who is leading the investigation - known as Operation Olympus - did not disclose any names, but said the individuals include Post Office investigators, solicitors and a "chain of management".
"We are beginning to look at the layers of management and that will, in time, extend to executive members and board members," he told ITV News.
"Obviously we're building cases here around perjury and perverting the course of justice. They're very serious offences.
"So we have to be really detailed and understand what part a person played in that particular investigation or litigation," he added.
A man and woman, both in their 60s, were interviewed under caution in late 2021, and a man in his 60s was interviewed under caution late last year. Earlier this year, police interviewed another man in his 60s.
No arrests have been made yet.
For investigators, progress has been slow, but significant.
Since starting the operation six months ago, the team was scaled up to over 100 officers and staff from across the UK and the volume of material under review has quadrupled from 1.5 million to six million documents.
These numbers, along with the total of suspects, are expected to rise further.
"What I can say is, is that I'm really confident the team is building a really robust case, which, of course, the Crown Prosecution Service will look at and make that final decision," Clayman told ITV News.
"But I'm really confident that the investigative strategy is really sound."
Former Post Office manager Janine Powell, 53, told ITV News she thinks it will be "a long while before we even see any progress."
The 53-year-old was wrongfully accused of stealing more than £74,000 from her branch in Tiverton, Devon. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and served five of them.
"They're not sorry at all and I just think maybe they should go through what we've all had to go through, what our children had to go through, our family. I've had to start over again and again and its not easy," she said.
Her daughter, Sophia, who was ten when Janine was sent to prison, said potential convictions of people responsible for the scandal will not take away from her childhood drama.
"Even if people get convicted, its never going to change anything that's happened. It's not going to bring my childhood as a ten-year-old back.
"They will never truly understand or feel what we went through. We had to start from scratch."
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.
A total of 236 sub-postmasters were sent to prison.
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