The firm named in the high-profile Post Office Inquiry this week has sought to distance itself from the conduct described.
In a statement released followed last week’s inquiry hearing, the national firm said that none of the employees, owners or managers involved in advising the Post Office remain with the company.
Cartwright King was named repeatedly during the inquiry’s questioning of Post Office investigator Stephen Bradshaw on Thursday. Previous evidence sessions have largely gone unnoticed in the national media but following the ITV drama Mr Bates v The Post Office the issue has stayed at the top of the news agenda and attracted huge press interest in the latest hearing.
Bradshaw said in his evidence that a statement he gave to the court lauding the reliability of the Horizon IT system was given to him by Cartwright King, the Post Office solicitors at the time.
Bradshaw said: ‘In hindsight, after I’d put further in my previous statements there probably should have been another line stating, “These are not my words but the statement is produced as a business statement”. I did not write that statement. We were told by Cartwright King to put that in.’
The investigator then named three members of Cartwright King who could have told him to put the statement in: Martin Smith, Andrew Bolc or Rachael Panter.
He added that the same statement ‘could have gone in from everybody within the [Post Office] security team to just about whatever case enquiry was ongoing at the time.’
Cartwright King was bought out of administration in December 2022 by a new company with a completely new management team.
The firm said: ‘The new owners of Cartwright King are, alongside the rest of the country, horrified at the injustice caused by the Post Office prosecutions and will provide full assistance to the Inquiry to help bring those responsible to justice.
‘This will include providing any relevant material in our possession, as well as assisting the Solicitors Regulation Authority to investigate the conduct of any solicitors involved in the prosecutions brought by the Post Office.
‘We hope that following the inquiry, all those who were wrongly prosecuted will be exonerated and compensated for their loss whilst those involved in bringing the prosecutions will be brought to justice in the criminal courts.’
