Ex-Post Office boss cornered over possible cover-up of Horizon scandal in Inquiry hearing
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- Опубліковано 10 кві 2024
- David Smith faced the music at the Post Office Inquiry today, when he was quizzed on his knowledge of Horizon software defects after the publication of the Ismay report in 2010.
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This man is lying. His body language and attitude is appalling!! It’s difficult to find the words.
I agree, they are all lying to back each other up and try to keep himself and the others out of prison. The guilty have to face justice for the lives they've destroyed, and the lives that have been taken because of the crimes they accused these innocent people of.
Normal attitude for these guys!
they will need to build a new prison ...there are so many
@@paulrichards6894 send them to Rwanda 🤔
Welcome to the real Britain!
Anyone else got a problem with how he spent the entire time lounging in the chair like he resents the questioning and doesnt have any respect for the process
It's a front to hide the fact he's lying and he knows the sheet he's in.
It's d biggest joke in history guy fawkes did nothing compared to these criminals
I haven't got a problem with it but as he is under oath I hope the full sentence for perjury is handed to him.
He tries to make our he was an incompetent oaf in charge of subordinates who knew more than him????
@@DavidJohnson-yg8qm I don't believe for one moment he didn't know about the back doors. I think he allowed that case to proceed because it as more important to him to protect the integrity of the Horizon system than to sort out which prosecutions were on dodgy ground.
As soon as I saw him adopt that posture I got really angry
Those post office executives should be stripped off their pensions and jailed
100%
They conspired over many year to destroy innocent lives and now bankrupt the POL.
That's white collar crime All Assets and money should be seized accounts frozen locked up in jail till bailed pasport's seized.
Where is the Serious Fraud Office this is a £ billion pound plus deliberate fraud.
Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
Apple and the Tree Project I guess🕊️
Children lost their parent, shameful disgrace, they need justice and prays
This man was running the Post Office, earning more than I will ever, and claiming not to have clue what was going on. It doesn’t add up.
You would think that such question should have been asked, but No, inquiries have one purpose; to sweep it under the carpet.
he may plead ignorance but ultimately he is completely responsible
Yes I wonder how many idiot,s get top job,s but then I look at the goverment 😳😳
These people need to be asked WHY they didn't know and WHY they don't remember.
@@zhana4518 just class it as dementia and make them unfit for office
Supercilious, pompous and arrogant. You can see the thinly veiled contempt all over him. Disgraceful display.
Imagine you are a Postmaster and you're faced with him. What are your chances?
Strongly agree
The sheer arrogance we see all through this and clear contempt for the questioners tells me these guys KNOW nothing is going to happen to them...
And that describes everyone running Canada right now!
@@DavidJohnson-yg8qmhe probably wouldn’t “face” anyone. He’s a coward.
He is a barefaced liar, incompetent and disrespectful.
Yet he will walk away from this inquiry with his bonuses and pension intact, and just a ticking off when the final report is published.
and with a poor memory
he is best PM material for the Tories!
they love liars in chief!
Liar, liar pants on fire...
🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥
@@Arltratlo looks more like a labour lovey to rational people.
He has all the dispicable, deceitful, arrogant qualities to be a politician .
This should be less of a public enquiry and more of a criminal investigation! What a bunch of bloody, vile liars.
Rocky, I’m sure it will happen. Even if the Met don’t, Alan Bates has said he will Crowd Fund to bring Private Prosecutions. I think the UK Public will contribute generously for it to happen.
To DELIBERATELY allow innocent people to go to prison is EVIL….these people should go to PRISON.
Bet it never happens
But they wont
How disrespectful, as he languidly sits there as if he was on a lunch break.🤦♀️
Innocent people going to prison was bad enough but tragically some took their own lives
ok..bet it never happens..well you can change that if you want to..we should not accept this from a shameful fucker like this..no ownership whatsoever... lock him up.
*What an appalling, arrogant, utterly deceitful man. He belongs behind bars!* 😠😡🤬
He won't be jailed that's why he deserves karma in the form of community justice
Never happen
Do you think that public school educated people are ever going to go to gaol for their actions the establishment will do what the establishment has always done and look after its own
For a vary long time hopefully L
@@michaelmcginley7930for sure !
The lady who is questioning has my profound respect. What a surgically exact talent.
They must get extremely frustrated.
The clear anger in her eyes reflects how the public sees this case.
These despicable people need to be arrested and jailed.
They have government backing so no one will be jailed, prison is only for us commoners
It's the civil servants. Jailing civil servants for a long time sends the message you have skin in the game.
He is not a civil servant. Post office is a private company who happens to be wholly owned by UK government.@@adenwellsmith6908
Couldn't agree more Marie. Yet they carry on and present themselves as if they know that will never happen. My prediction is - after all this is over and done with, PV will carry on just as Blair did after the Chilcot inquiry.
Need they be jailed? Yes. Will they be? Most probably not. The level of protection for these people is astonishing but not unbelievable.
Lie after lie after lie. All of these people who continue to lie about their involvement should themselves be facing criminal charges. WHY aren't they???
There is a dichotomy in the CJS most white collar corporate crimes are settled out of court as opposed to working class regular crime which is settled through the normal process of police, court and sentencing
Because corporate crim is seen as bad luck to be caught
But if you are
It's just a yellow card and back on your way.however if you are a benefit cheat for a few hundreds quid .you get seriously jail time and public humiliation by being reported in the media
This is cringe-inducing.
they know working class people are ignorant and stupid, the working classes vote in corrupt bourgeois governments and defend them to the hilt. brexitttt bojo, and so on, blame migrants for all our ills, put incompetent people in charge, this is why the working class live in excrement.
I hate how smug and relaxed he looks. I hope he gets sent to prison for the rest of his life.
The arrogance of this man is staggering.
Narcissists are incapable of caring what anybody else thinks about them.
He’s not even good at lying 🤥. Arrogance personified
Lying through his teeth.
His body language is flavourful of someone who knows he will never set foot in prison. Lets change that!
it should have been a massive red flag to senior management that suddenly they had hundreds of postmasters, law abiding, pillars of the community who suddenly turned into apparent thieves, group think on a massive scale and there only focus was on protecting the name of post office.
Exactly
It should, but they would have been told that ever since they migrated to the infallible Horizen system, they're now able to identify shortfalls. This would have given them comfort that their profits and bonuses are now protected, thanks to Horizen, and then they would have just sat back and not cared one jot for the PMs.
Take their gold plated pensions off them and send them to jail
And the juicy bonuses they gave themselves.
They should be stripped off the pension and put behind bars
all high rate pensions and savings go to contribute to something better.
He should be personally sued to such a degree it leaves him with nothing or any future income.
Sovereign citizens walk into the sunset.
The way he was thrown back in the chair as if he was having a casual coffee with someone and not in front of an inquiry! shameful !
Because he knows nothing will happen to him. These thugs in suits are all protected.
Agree with every word...So up his arse....🤔🤔🤔
Just sit back and deny everything.
@@simonlawrencesings Absolutely correct.
I could be wrong, but I don't think his body language is arrogant. I think he knows he's cornered and he's adopting a defensive, non-open posture. He's not even trying to come across as convincing. This is a 'Squirm' type posture. It strikes me as someone who knows what is coming and knows he has no chance to come out of it successfully.
He stinks of guilt, his arrogance is mind boggling, you can see how angry this lady is.
It will be intresting at the end of this inquiry to see how many do jail time, if no one is jailed we know government and institutions are CORRUPT, and we are now a Banana Republic.
He was the Managing Director and pretends he knew nothing about it. He’s a liar, or completely incompetent. If incompetent, why was he paid the huge bonuses. Me thinks it because he’s a liar 🤥
If he was the managing director and didn't know what was going on then he wasn't a good managing director
How do these people get these jobs
Old boys network or something
He just couldn't be bothered
His position made him responsible, whether he knew about it or not.
Tory Brexit Britain
. I don't believe he was incompetent. He knew what he was covering up. He was fully aware of how much money was going into his bank account of the back of this get rich quick scheme. Of course it would be an offshore account, certainly not a post office one.
Arrogance and indifference personified.
Narcissists are incapable of caring what anybody else thinks about them.
Post office should be ashamed of the management they selected to do their dirty work. Put them behind bars .
The PO management don't do shame, it's not in their corporate mentality. Just look at this one, he doesn't care, does he ?
One thing that has jumped out to me since the names of all the top people at the Post Office have emerged is that all of them seem to have jumped from one top job to another since leaving. This seems to have become the way our establishment works. It's not whether people are any good at their job, it's what other senior positions the have held.
Yes absolutely. Q1: How good are you at telling convincing lies? Q2: And how good are you at telling convincing lies? You have the position. (It's not a "job" is it?) .
They who were in charge should be in JAIL for the PAIN and SUFFERING they caused to POSTMASTERS and their family's !!😊😊
don't be silly , the establishment look after their own, these inquiries want to give you the impression they have working class interests at heart, they will simply conclude that no individual is solely blame and that it was a failure of the organization as whole, have you forgot Grenfell, everyone just passes the buck.
This man should be in a prison cell today.
She is absolutely furious!!! Controlling her anger so well!!!.
Lock him up ! 10 years should be justice for those Postmasters they falsely put on trial.
The questioner is clearly struggling to keep her temper under control. She oozes contempt for the witness
I felt that too. I also felt the victims deserved someone asking more effective questions. She performed poorly. Pity.
We all wanted her to give him a harder time but this is an inquiry...she can't go for him as if they were all in court. He's not actually on trial...but hopefully one day, once all this evidence has been collated, he will be.
And rightly so
@@daveygee434I thought the same unfortunately. The chap to her right is much more focused in his questioning and doesn't easily let go. That said, Jason Beer as the lead KC is superb.
Admire this Lady for clear and concise questioning.
David smith needs to go to jail immediately.
@Paragon62 definitely
@@stevenoneill7166 Along with all the rest.
They really need to skip the fiasco of a inquiry and go straight to criminal proceedings to really hold individuals or the company to full account.
No shame.
Arrogant.
Obnoxious.
A liar.
A poor memory.
No integrity or humility.
But HE did alright.
A great role model for our youth to aspire to.
David Smith has so little respect for the process he doesn’t even sit up straight.
Narcissists are incapable of caring what anybody else thinks about them.
These disgusting people need to ge put on trial for lying and causibgvso much misery!
What bonuses and pay rises did these people get during this time?
They should be stripped of all payments along with any entitlements, and made to repay all.
He would rather represent himself as a woefully incompetent CEO than acknowledge responsibility. Abject moral corruption. How do these people face themselves?
An incompetent criminal is still a criminal.
What an evil man
What an evil organization British Post Office are
There should be jail time for all these evil people
In my humble opinion they do deserve jail time, but it will never happen. Some highly paid KC, will use the excuse that after the hearing they will never be able to get a fare trial. And the a highly paid judge will agree and then they will go back to their exclusive clubs and have a celebration drink.
This is an absolute disgrace, an 8th month pregnant woman was jailed leaving her 10 year old son to fend for himself. These people should all get heavy sentences.
Ordinary people would be thrown behind bars, but with our "protect the rich" system, theres more of a chance of him getting a peerage than a prison sentence.
The only thing that hits you directly in the face whilst looking at this irritating witness, is the blatant disregard he has for the inquiry. You can tell this from the lack of posture and slovenly position while giving his limited recall of the events he was fully involved with. It begs the question as to his competency in his senior position. He is as useless as a chocolate teapot, and that's the polite way in describing him.
I was only following orders - I know nothing - wasn't me guv. Liars, all of them. This needs to be heard in a criminal court, how can they sit there after destroying so many lives and not face the consequences? Come on rozzers, its time to step up and do your job, properly.
'I was following orders' was the responses from the Nuremberg Trials in 1945.
the police are too busy protecting khan and arresting people for hurtful comments on tik tok.
The police don't serve the public.
That payment will already have been earmarked at the Lodge
Above all he doesn't care, he's too busy being arrogant.
Expecting despicable people to start telling the truth after decades of deceit, isn’t going to happen.
The bottom line is that not only did managers know there was a real problem, there was total cynicism about the impact of this issue on the lives of INNOCENT people and their families.
There need to be prosecutions and lengthy jail sentences where guilt is proven.
At no time did board members talk to the accused, shadow them at work. No one WANTED TO KNOW.
Arrogant senior management "don't challenge me" attitude, seen it many times over the years
I was the boss and I didn't know anything. I was looking for something else in another office.
Lying toerag
he kept saying the right things like he was sorry but somehow I didn't believe him
The way this country is going they are going to have to build a lot more prisons. The number of so called people at the top that are nothing more than crooks and self servers is staggering. A big part of the problem is the so called bosses constantly get away with it, the British justice system is a laughing stock. The whole country needs reformed.
If he didn't know about it he's not much of a boss. Say anything to save there own skin what they did to them people is appalling.
@@paulrichards6894 What he actually meant was that he's sorry that he's been caught out.
@@mrmyorky5634 he is trying to be clever because quite a few have refused to apologize
These people think they are untouchable. That's why they have contempt for the questions.
Jail every executive manager and anyone else who is involved in this cover up.
Well done Ms Flora Page.
You show this guy for who he is.
If I was pressing charges against hundreds of my own employees, resulting in many prison sentences and even suicides, I think I might have taken more than a passing interest in the process. So either he is lying about how little he knew, or he was heartlessly indifferent. Neither is a good look.
The body language here is very similar to many of the investigators who gave evidence earlier in the Inquiry. Speaks to a horrible corporate culture pervading all levels of management.
And yet it pervades through all companies in the UK , whether Public and Private.
Also bear in mind, the Post Office is a law unto itself. Because of some ridicuous privilege going back hundreds of years, it gets to investigate itself and lead its own prosecutions. Take that privilege away and make it use the police and CPS like everyone else. Who in their right mind would want to be a post master after this inquiry if that isn't changed.
These corporate , obsidian poker faced bods come away with nothing except some spending tokens to show for having spread more and more misery, year after year, “professionally” as a career! . Wow, world gone bad-mad
Body laungage = Squirming with embarrasing pain...
Problem is, companies generously reward this behaviour - until the cat is out of the bag!
Yet another case of deny, deny, deny and if that dos'nt work then its a case of - Nothing to do with me Guv ! I knew nothing about that. The total sum of what this man did'nt know would fill up a large book.
I sincerely hope that true justice will follow this enquiry, and that those responsible will face criminal charges and trial.
stop taking drugs, but give me your dealer phone number,
i want that stuff, too!
Fat chance. Rich, powerful people don't face consequences. Those are for little people.
tismeagen684 Absolutely no chance , there are politicians involved in this scandal both government and opposition, it certainly will be a first if any of the guilty are prosecuted , the very fact that politicians knew about the cover up but did absolutely nothing means that nobody but the most expendable people will face justice , the government , civil servants and Lawyers will all Trot off with their reputations and pensions intact .
They won't face consequences. The law only applies to the plebs in this country.
One law for the rich and one for the poor.These slimebags will get away with it scot free.
i doubt any of them will do time...and if they do it will be the ones at the bottom
Solicitors will push for prosecution and the courts won't have a choice...they will go to court and be prosecuted.
@@johnlowe-tq6ey hope you are right
with out doubt...I'll show my arse if a single one off these is even given a ticking off let alone jail
She asked him whether or not he knew about the bug at the time, he answered with "Yes" then a minute later says he wasn't informed of it at the time. I hope he's under oath and everything he says can be used against him at his trial.
My husband worked for Fujitsu but not on Horizon, and not in Bracknell. Long before it was renamed Horizon and was Pathway, it was known to be a crock of shit. Everyone knew.
I once worked for another ex-state owned company with an integrated EPOS system provided by this company... the system became known as the Electronic Pile Of S!!t. The only people taken to court though was the client company by HMRC because the system couldn't even count! It took 5 years to sort out and only gradually did it become the system it ought to have been on delivery.
The software team should also be jailed.
Why are these people not in jail? They sent innocent people to jail, ruined their lives and livelihoods and these sociopaths were paid millions in bonuses and given honours.
I know what would happen to me and all other working class people if we were to lie about our involvement in such a scandal and innocent people were jailed.
In life when you work in any organisation you know what you are supposed to know, and then there is all the extra information which you know because people gossip. People cannot resist leaking secrets. Who is having an affair, who has a weird social life, who is incompetent, who is effective at their job.
When people at Post Office say they knew nothing about a subject - like the failings in the Horizon system I find it very hard to believe that is true. How Horizon was performing must have been central to many of their jobs. Surely the people from the Post Office would have had a beer after formal meetings with the Fujitsu people when they would have spoken about the system. Not to mention the Post Office staff going for a drink after work and discussing the business.
Much of what is being revealed, or not revealed, at this enquiry is difficult to believe for me having dealt with Government departments and Royal Mail. It is amazing to me more people did not know what was really going on with Horizon.
his arrogance and mendacity is extraordinary.
Absolutely right.
How are these scumbags not in prison?! 😡
Because the UK is corrupt from top to bottom
Because senior MPs, stretching back to the Blair regime, have been in on it.
The government is also privy to the the corruption as they have not compensated fully. Bucnxh of my
Because they're wealthy, friends in high places including MPs. I will be surprised if any of them goes to prison, another whitewash.
The more I hear the more speechless I become - the whole thing beggars belief. Justice will prevail, hopefully we'll all still be around to see it...
He’s not sitting back in his chair because he’s being casual, it’s because he subconsciously wants to distance himself from the questions as far as possible. He’s definitely not telling the whole truth.
Indeed
its hard to know who made the decisions because every one I've seen says it was always someone else
Agree
Yep. "What? People were covering it up? Well I must say that I am shocked! Shocked I tell you!" - Totally Honest Person
It's always the same answers "I didn't know", "No one told me", "I was not in charge" bla bla bla.....rubbish!
If this man aswell as Vennells and some of the investigation team for the Post Office are not criminally charged and jailed after this enquiry then there can never be any justice for those falsely accused.
How do these inept and incompetent individuals get to be in these senior positions?! He was the managing director of this business, how can he say that he had no knowledge of what has to be the largest number of prosecutions in their history?
All the senior manager in this case should be subject to lie detector tests, both to confirm the truth to answers of fact given and answers of "I dont know" given ..
Under oath and doesn't give 2 figs
Narcissists are incapable of caring what anybody else thinks about them.
He completely nonchalant and distant from the atrocities he oversaw. No emotion, no care, no truth. He is a disgusting , cruel and complicit manager. I presume he took the same oath as the other evil staff...' I promise to tell the truth, and anything BUT the truth' I just hope they have a cell door open for this despicable thing too.
Narcissists are incapable of caring what anybody else thinks about them.
What kind of lawyer has evidence relevant to a trial and doesn't disclose it to the court
Still NOT a single person in Management at the Post Office has gone to Jail.
Wow. You can very easily tell he is lying. He MUST be sent to jail and the key thrown away if there is any justice.
"I don't know, I don't remember, I wasn't there". This is the best the Chief Exec of the PO can come up with. If this was truly the case, then what were they paying him for?
I agree. When it's time to justify high salaries for bosses the narrative is as they take so much responsibility but when things go wrong we see they didn't know anything going on if it's bad.
To lie and deceive
I'm not aware , I didn't know , I can't recall, I don't remember, He remembered giving evidence against the post masters. What a despicable person.
I was going to use a lot of angry and indecent language but then I remembered how calm Mr Bates is and how he wouldn't want it. What a role model he is. I'm posting this instead.
His excuse is a variation of the Schoolboy Defence :- " it wasn't me a big boy did it and ran away" What a pathetic liar.
So much BS from this man it's untrue. He is so completely insincere it's disgusting .... he's a××se covering. Put him on trial and then in jail.
And even now they can't tell the truth, everybody involved in this cover up needs to be jailed for a very long time.
The Post office legal team should also face imprisonment for misleading the courts and wilfully causing a massive miscarriage of justice. The legal profession must not escape its role in this terrible crime against innocent victims of this scandal
He clearly thinks he is above everyone in the room.Get him in a prison cell.
You can tell he’s “shocked and appalled” by the tone of his voice, he’s just besides himself!
Narcissists are incapable of caring what anybody else thinks about them.
Liar from beginning to end. He should be in jail first what he has done. Horrific human being. Shame on him and his soul.
I cannot believe that his staff took it upon themselves to deceive not only the courts, the accused and their own boss. He must have approved and encouraged their actions. At best he was negligent. I cannot see how some of these PO staff have not already been arrested and charged?
What's also been revealed is that the board is populated by members sitting on multiple other boards and that they obviously couldn't or wouldn't give this whole affair the scrutiny it needed
Lying trough his teeth to save his own skin when knowing full well that a innocent person went to prison.
It's enough to make an atheist hope there is a higher place.
Indeed...where the Rev Paula Vennells [yes, really] will be judged. Good luck to her with that....
@@francisfox9171 she nearly became bishop of London
If obfuscation was a criminal offence the entire parade of Post Office 'witnesses' would already be behind bars.
These people need to face criminal charges and do jail time! I have never seen anything so disgusting
It seems the Post Office senior executive only turned up to collect their pay cheques. They are now denying knowledge, by implication someone else was. What was he doing for his pay cheque? The buck stops at the senior executive, regardless of whether he read it or not. It was his job to know.
Money for nothing
I was not aware....
I did not know...
Over and over again.
Blatant lying.
‘All guidance was followed’
these managers should not get away with their lies - justice must be seved!
That's a man who is clearly lying and doesn't care about the impact it had. Not a hint of sincerity.
Look at his posture he doesn't give a shit.
Judges i've met would have reminded him where he was and told him to stop slouching like a sloth.Plus we need Perry Mason to sort this lot out.
Because he knows nothing will happen
Narcissists are incapable of caring what anybody else thinks about them.
These people are protected by the establishment. Untouchable. That's why he doesn't give a damn. He acts like he is squatting an annoying bug.
You can see the contempt he has for this enquiry written all over his face.
Narcissists are incapable of caring what anybody else thinks about them.
Absolutely right.
She didn't point out that the subject line of that email from Rod Ismay contained the words ATTACK ON HORIZON, which would have given even more weight to her assertion that this trial was being used to vindicate Horizon, rather than to determine whether a crime had been committed.
One question that should have been put to this guy was "what do you know anything about". Every question he answers by denying he knew what was going on in the business he was meant to be in charge of.
Shocking to watch and with a heart pounding. My worry is these appalling people Don't have a miserable life in jail !!
They deserve jail time
It seems if you are any part of the POL senior management team, you can end up in court suffering with selective amnesia.