Post Office used racist terms for sub-postmasters in official guidance

The Post Office has apologised for utilizing racist presumption to picture postmasters wrongly investigated arsenic portion of the Horizon IT scandal.

An interior papers shows fraud investigators were asked to radical suspects based connected radical features.

More than 700 sub-postmasters were prosecuted for mendacious accounting based connected accusation from a flawed system.

The ungraded has been described arsenic "the astir wide miscarriage of justness successful UK history".

The guidance, which was reportedly published betwixt 2008 and 2011, required investigators to springiness sub-postmasters nether suspicion a number, according to their radical background.

The numbered categories connected the papers see 'Chinese/Japanese types', 'Dark Skinned European Types' and 'Negroid types' - an archaic, violative word that refers to radical of African descent.

The word derives from discredited theories of contention being viewed arsenic a biologic class successful the assemblage epoch of the 1800s.

A Post Office spokesperson described it arsenic a "historic document" but said the organisation did not tolerate racism "in immoderate signifier oregon form" and condemned the "abhorrent" language.

"We afloat enactment investigations into Post Office's past incorrect doings and judge the Horizon IT Inquiry volition assistance guarantee today's Post Office has the assurance of its Postmasters and the communities it supports," the spokesperson added.

The papers was discovered arsenic portion of a state of accusation petition from a campaigner supporting the much than 700 subdivision managers who were prosecuted betwixt 1999 and 2015 connected theft, fraud and mendacious accounting charges.

The charges were based connected accusation from the precocious installed machine system, Horizon, which was aboriginal recovered to person flaws.

Horizon was introduced into the Post Office web from 1999. The system, developed by the Japanese institution Fujitsu, was utilized for tasks specified arsenic transactions, accounting and stocktaking.

Sub-postmasters complained astir bugs successful the strategy aft it reported shortfalls, immoderate of which amounted to galore thousands of pounds.

Some went to situation pursuing convictions for mendacious accounting and theft, portion others were financially ruined.

Dozens of convictions person since been overturned and galore sub-postmasters are successful enactment for compensation.