Co-CEO of Fujitsu Europe to testify over U.K. Post Office scandal

Paul Patterson, co-CEO for Europe at Fujitsu, is set to testify at a House of Commons committee meeting Tuesday over a high-profile case in which numerous post office managers in Britain were wrongly charged with cash theft.

The false accusations resulted from a flawed accounting system supplied by the Japanese technology giant. Patterson also serves as a corporate executive officer at the Japanese parent company.

Other witnesses at the Business and Trade Committee meeting will include Nick Read, CEO of Britain’s postal service; Kevin Hollinrake, British minister for enterprise, markets and small business; and former post office managers who were falsely charged, the British lower house committee said Thursday.

They will be questioned “on what more can be done to deliver full, fair and fast compensation for victims of the scandal, which has been labeled the worst miscarriage of justice in British history,” the committee said.

In the case that took place between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 people, including post office managers, were falsely charged with fraud or embezzlement following the discovery of financial discrepancies at post offices that used Fujitsu’s Horizon accounting system.

Although the gaps were later found to have resulted from a defect in the Horizon system, only some of the accused people had their convictions revoked.

The scandal came into the spotlight after a television drama featuring the incident was broadcast earlier this month.