Post Office investigator who pursued tragic postmasters made cash target brag

23 January 2024 , 13:30

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Former Post Office investigator Robert Daily addressing the inquiry (Image: Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry/Youtube)

A Post Office investigator who pursued two sub-postmasters who died without seeing justice bragged about the money he'd clawed back after being set high targets.

Robert Daily helped prosecute tragic Peter Holmes and William Quarm, whose convictions were finally overturned years after their deaths. The widows of both men said the wrongful prosecutions in 2010 had a devastating impact on their husbands.

An inquiry into the scandal heard Mr Daily proudly told his bosses in 2014 that he'd recovered over £68,000 in a year from suspects - well above the target he was expected to deliver. In a performance review the same year, he said he was "taking all steps" to claw back cash, as he confirmed investigators were given tough financial targets.

Former sub-postmaster Peter Holmes with his wife Marion (MDG)

The Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, which is investigating the prosecutions of hundreds of innocent branch managers, heard Mr Daily rooted through Mr Holmes' house and car before even interviewing him. He refused to accept the former policeman's explanation that the faulty Horizon system, produced by software firm Fujitsu, could be to blame.

Instead he told colleagues he "saw no reason" not to take him to court, and Mr Holmes was convicted of false accounting in 2010. This was overturned in 2021, six years after he died from a brain tumour. Mr Daily, who refused to apologise, claimed he was unaware other sub-postmasters were also raising concerns about the software.

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In a heartbreaking victim statement from 2010, Mr Holmes, from Newcastle, said: "I do not believe that Royal Mail has conducted a thorough investigation and did not consider any alternative in relation to the allegation."

In an interview with Mr Daily, the sub-postmaster said he had "absolutely no idea" where the money was, adding: "I spent too many years in the police force seeing things go wrong to start stealing money from anybody."

Former sub-postmaster William Quarm with wife Anne (Daily Record)

Representing victims including Mr Holmes' widow Marion, solicitor Christopher Jacobs told him: "What I have to say to you is that Mrs Holmes and a lot of my other clients simply don't believe that. They can't accept that you had no idea that other sub-postmasters and assistants had problems with Horizon and were raising this."

Asked if he felt personal responsibility for the injustice Mr Holmes suffered, Mr Daily responded: "No I was only doing my job." Mr Daily confirmed he and fellow investigators were expected to recover at least 65% of the money sub-postmasters were accused of stealing by 2014.

These were a factor in deciding their annual bonuses, he admitted. Just five years earlier, in 2009, the expected return figure had been 40%, the inquiry head.

Asked why it had gone up, Mr Daily said: "I can only think it was because of the amount of losses the Post Office were suffering." In a 2014 performance review, Mr Daily said he had "achieved an 86% recovery" in his cases - amounting to over £68,000.

A 2009 document showed Mr Daily was 'exceeding' targets on recovering money from investigations

Asked whether it was right that investigators were set targets for recovery of cash from those who were investigated, he replied: "Yes." Mr Daily, who joined the Post Office in 1979 and became a Security and Investigations Manager in 2005, also admitted that prosecutions were carried out in Scotland despite his colleagues not being qualified in Scottish law.

Before 2013, the inquiry heard, there were no Scottish qualified lawyers in the criminal law team, which made decisions on whether to proceed to court. Mr Daily said: "It did concern me when I was on my own in Scotland in 2008/09.

"I was the only investigator, I felt as if at times I'd pass a case down to the criminal investigations teams and there wasn't an understanding of Scottish law." Sub-postmaster Mr Quarm, who died in 2012, ran a post office in North Uist in Scotland.

His widow Anne said before the hearing that the ordeal left him a "broken man", and he was "depressed and ashamed" after being forced to plead guilty to embezzling money. And Mr Holmes' widow said the investigation and conviction had taken a devastating toll on him.

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Speaking before yesterday's(TUE) hearing she said: "Nobody believed him, I just wish somebody had just listened to him. It was obvious he wasn't guilty... Nobody that knew Peter ever thought that he was guilty."

Dave Burke