Post Office latest: Inquiry hearing from former Horizon director David Miller

Looking at the case of sub-postmistress Julie Wolstenholme, we see from emails that because finance director Peter Corbett was on holiday, information about the case was escalated to Miller.

Miller interrupts Price as she reads out the word “escalate” from the email – he argues that Corbett was employed at the same level as he and so, actually, this should have gone above him and he should have queried it at the time.

He is asked why he didn’t.

“Because I was dealing with it at speed and I signed it off,” he replies.

In his witness statement, Miller says he did not read legal advice relating to the case and says “I very much regret” not giving it closer attention.

In the statement, Miller says of a meeting with ex-head of security Tony Marsh: “He told me there was an issue with the expert advice which had led our counsel to say the [Post Office] case was unlikely to succeed. It was clear that he did not think much of the expert.

“The view was that we should cut our losses and pay up.”

The statement goes on: “Knowing what I now know about Horizon and the way it was used to wrongly prosecute and bring civil claims against sub-postmasters, I very much regret not reading the expert’s report and counsel’s advice.

“Had I done so I would have taken action to address the issues raised. I acknowledge that by not reading them there was a missed opportunity.”