Errant data led to errant prosecution of British postal workers

Thousands of workers were wrongfully accused and prosecuted in the early 2000s, because of false data produce by a poor accounting system.

Horizon, the information technology program at fault for the accounting errors, was created by Fujitsu, a Japanese company, under a contract with the British government. The report alleges that even before the program was rolled out in 1999, some Fujitsu employees knew that Horizon could produce false data. Fujitsu did not immediately respond to a request for comment submitted through the company’s website.

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Prosecutors relied on data from Horizon to bring criminal cases against the postal workers. Further reports from the inquiry are likely to detail the role of Fujitsu and the postal service’s top officials in the scandal.

A recent report, as described by the New York Times, points to 13 deaths by suicide as a result of the errors. This happened a while ago, but holy cannoli, don’t take data at face value.