A former post office executive who celebrated the conviction of a pregnant deputy postmaster has apologized.

Former managing director David Smith has apologized to the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry, which is looking into who knew what and when about flawed accounting software that ruined people’s lives and killed hundreds of people. Innocent deputy postmaster convicted of theft and false accounting.

The scandal was thrust into the spotlight again earlier this year after the ITV drama Mr Bates v The Post Office aired.

Horizon software developed by Fujitsu mistakenly caused financial shortfalls at post office branches across the UK.

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As a result, the post office forced the deputy postmaster to recoup the losses, sell the house and fall deeply into debt in the process.

Many suffered poor health, some died by suicide, and many more suffered reputational damage and left the community.

Seema Misra was one of those wrongly convicted and was sentenced to 15 months in prison, including four months served while pregnant.

“good news”

In 2010, Mr Smith sent an email to post office prosecutors congratulating them on their role in jailing Ms Misra for theft.

“Great news. Well done. Please pass on my thanks to the team,” he said.

Smith said the purpose of the message was to celebrate proving that Horizon is strong, not to put someone in jail.

“I would never consider this to be ‘good news’ for a pregnant woman to be jailed and I’m very sorry that my email was interpreted that way. Whatever the outcome, I will thank the team for their work on this .this case,” Mr Smith’s statement of evidence to the inquiry said.

“However, knowing what I now know and seeing this email, I understand the anger and upset it would cause and sincerely apologize for that.”

“It is clear that my email will cause significant distress to Seema Misra and her family, and I would like to apologize for that.”

Ms Misra’s conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal in 2021.

‘Risk’ of Post Office prosecutions

The Post Office can investigate and prosecute on its own without the involvement of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Reflecting on the approach to prosecution, Mr Smith told the inquest there were “risks” within the system.

Internal prosecutions “can result in you not being able to think as independently as you should about the quality of the information,” he said.