This is one of those cases that makes you side-eye your banking app.

Because this episode isn’t about a serial killer.It’s about a spreadsheet.

It’s about a computer system called Horizon.And it’s about what happens when an institution decides the software must be right… even when real human beings are losing everything.

Between 1999 and 2015, nearly 1,000 sub-postmasters were wrongfully convicted based on faulty data generated by the Horizon IT system . Around 236 people were sent to prison for crimes they did not commit .

This has since been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British legal history.

And honestly? Fiction would have had better quality control.

And Finally… The Quiz

We end the episode with a Multiple Choice Quiz about major computer disasters (because if we don’t laugh, we’ll scream):

You know the rules.

Sources

• Nick Wallis – The Great Post Office Scandal (2021)

• British Scandals podcast mini series on the Post Office Horizon Scandal

• Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry – Final Report, Volume 1 (2025)

• Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry – Reports & Statements Hub

• Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry – End of Year Newsletter Review (2025)

• Bates v Post Office Ltd (No. 3) – High Court Judgment (2019)

• Bates v Post Office Ltd – High Court Judgment (2019)

• Hamilton & Others v Post Office Ltd – Court of Appeal Judgment (2021)

• Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) – Post Office Horizon Cases

• Post Office Horizon System Offences Act 2024 (UK Parliament)

• Post Office (Horizon System) Offences (Scotland) Act 2024

• Quashed Convictions Management Information (30 October 2025) – GOV.UK

• Quashed Convictions Management Information (3 October 2024) – GOV.UK

• Post Office Horizon Financial Redress Data (as of 19 December 2025) – GOV.UK

• Post Office Horizon & Capture Redress Legal Costs Data (as of 31 December 2025) – GOV.UK

• Horizon Shortfall Scheme – Information & Data (Post Office Ltd)

• Post Office Horizon Scandal – FAQs (Post Office Ltd)

• Government Response to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry Report (Volume 1)

• Oversight and Regulation of Private Prosecutors – Government Consultation

• Metropolitan Police – Operation Olympos (Post Office Investigation Portal)

• Eradicating Fujitsu and Horizon from the Post Office – Computer Weekly

• Post office operator wrongly jailed while pregnant rejects executive’s apology | Post Office Horizon scandal | The Guardian

• Innocent subpostmasters went to jail, but now it is clear: the Post Office boss class belong there instead | Marina Hyde | The Guardian

• Hamilton -v- Post Office judgment

• Ex-subpostmistress jailed after Post Office Horizon scandal rejects 'egregious' compensation offer | ITV News Calendar

• Attempted suicide, exile abroad and prison: The stories behind the Post Office scandal | The Independent