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Former subpostmaster and Lee Castleton has issued High Court proceedings against the Post Office and Fujistu for their part in the Horizon scandal.

According to a statement from his solicitors, Simons Muirhead Burton, Mr Castleton will say that the Post Office (conspiring with others) obtained its judgment against him by fraud by withholding evidence of the unreliability of the Horizon system. They say that the 2007 judgment “destroyed his business, his livelihood, and his reputation in his community, and it resulted in his bankruptcy and had a devastating long-term impact on his own and his family’s health”.

In 2007, Lee Castleton was subjected to a High Court judgment obtained against him by the Post Office who claimed that he had lost money from the Post Office that he ran, which were later to be revealed as errors caused by the Horizon computer system. In 2019, in group litigation, Mr Justice Fraser held that the legal basis for the 2007 judgment against Mr Castleton was wrong.

Lee was one of hundreds of subpostmasters wrongly accused and prosecuted for stealing money, with some serving custodial sentences for crimes they did not commit. The discrepancies in subpostmaster’s accounts were later attributed to bugs within the system which was supplied by Fujistu.

In 2020, Lee Castleton spoke to Convenience Store about his treatment during the Horizon saga.

The fallout from the Horizon system’s errors lead to a three-year statutory inquiry, led by Sir Wyn Williams while the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme was set up to compensate those who had their convictions overturned. Following the broadcast of the ITV drama, Mr Bates vs the Post Office, in early 2024, former Post Office CEO had her CBE revoked.

A Post Office spokesperson said: “We recognise that many victims of the Horizon IT Scandal continue to be impacted by their experience. Post Office today is committed to doing all we can to help those affected get closure. We cannot comment on ongoing legal proceedings but once we receive the claim, we will engage fully in the process”

Fujitsu have declined to comment on the situation.

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