Post Office: Press watchdog revises ruling against ex-Fujitsu CEO

A press complaint by a former Fujitsu CEO about his role in the Post Office scandal has been partly overturned by the industry watchdog following new information uncovered by a BBC investigation.

The Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) now says the Sunday Times had not been misleading when it reported that Michael Keegan had been "central" to Fujitsu's dealings with the Post Office, reversing a ruling it made in 2022.

It is the first time the watchdog has revisited one of its published findings on the basis of new information.

A separate part of the complaint remains upheld for which the newspaper published a correction three years ago.

Ipso said Mr Keegan told it, as part of its original investigation in 2022, that he had only met former Post Office chief Paula Vennells once and "that he had no ongoing relationship with her; and that he did not discuss or give her any assurances regarding Horizon's capabilities".

But last year BBC News revealed Mr Keegan had in fact had four meetings with her during his 13 months heading up Fujitsu UK from May 2014 to June 2015.

Two of these were face-to-face meetings and the other two were telephone calls, one of which concerned a BBC Panorama investigation into the scandal.

Mr Keegan now accepts the new information shows he met Ms Vennells more than once.

But he told Ipso the number of times he met or spoke to her was "immaterial" to his complaint and that he had not played a "central role", as reported by the Sunday Times.

Ipso's Complaints Committee was not persuaded and found that the newspaper had not been "inaccurate" or "misleading" when it said Mr Keegan had played a "central role" or been "central" to Fujitsu's dealings with the Post Office during his time in charge.

Part of the dispute about the Sunday Times' reporting centred around comments by Ms Vennells that the Horizon IT system used by the Post Office was like "Fort Knox", a quote she attributed to an ex-CEO of contractor Fujitsu.

The Post Office has previously tried to argue that branch accounts could only be changed by sub-postmasters. It has since emerged that they could be accessed remotely.

The Sunday Times identified Mr Keegan as the source of the quote, but acknowledged it was mistaken when IPSO first investigated in 2022.

Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted after the faulty Horizon software made it look like money was missing from Post Office branch accounts.

Mr Keegan told BBC News: "Any judgement about the Horizon scandal should await the findings of the inquiry.

"The fact I had one additional meeting with the CEO of the Post Office on an entirely unrelated matter, some 11 years ago, does not in my view call into question the original decision Ipso reached. I am pleased that Ipso upheld its original decision in relation to the inaccuracy of the earlier article in The Sunday Times".

Last year lawyers for Mr Keegan said he regrets that sub-postmasters were prosecuted unfairly and denied playing any part in it.

A spokesperson for Ipso declined to comment.

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