The criminal investigation into the Correios scandal will be expanded, with the involvement of 80 detectives.
O Metropolitan police began examining possible crimes, including perjury and perverting the course of justice, in January 2020.
This is now being extended to forces across the UK as a public inquiry into the scandal progresses.
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Hundreds of subpostmasters have been wrongly convicted of theft and false accounting due to a faulty IT system called Horizon.
Met Commander Stephen Clayman, who is overseeing the investigation, said officers understood the “widespread and devastating impact” of the scandal.
He added: “A team of detectives has been meticulously working through millions of documents manually and with the help of specialist software, in parallel with the public inquiry. This is very time consuming and we cannot save money and run the risk of losing evidence.
“Given the significant scale of the investigation, it has been agreed by the National Police Chiefs’ Council that the next phase of the investigation will be a national policing effort, coordinated by the Met, with the pursuit of justice at its heart.
“We do not underestimate the seriousness of the task at hand and are determined to carry out a thorough investigation with independence, accuracy and integrity.”
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Correios and Fujitsu – which developed the Horizon software – have been under police investigation for more than four years, following an indication from the Director of Public Prosecutions.
However, a final charging decision can only be made when the public inquiry reaches its conclusions – and although the hearings are expected to end later this year, a final report may only be published at the end of 2025.
According to The Guardian, officers asked the government for £6.75 million to fund their expanded investigation.
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
