Former Post Office lawyer tracked down to £2m home in Australia after refusing to appear at Horizon scandal inquiry
A FORMER Post Office lawyer who refused to appear at the Horizon scandal inquiry has been tracked down by The Sun on Sunday to her £2 million home in Australia.
Jane MacLeod, 62, was lead counsel during Alan Bates’s High Court battle against the organisation.
She rejected the chance to appear in-person or via video link for the crucial inquiry – even after officials offered to pay for her flights and accommodation.
Instead she has submitted a lengthy witness statement in which she apologised to Horizon victims for taking decisions which prolonged their “distress” .
But insists she has still seen no evidence that the software had been misused to create bogus losses.
Mrs MacLeod’s chic modern townhouse in Sydney is complete with heated rooftop swimming pool.
When approached about her no-show at the inquiry Mrs MacLeod replied “no comment” before going back inside.
Her disgraced former boss Paula Vennells was grilled over three tortuous days in London this week over the wrongful convictions of hundreds of subpostmasters.
Australian-born Mrs MacLeod was the Post Office general counsel between 2015 and 2019.
She left the UK in 2020 with her company director husband, Greg, and two adult sons at the height of the Covid lockdowns.
On Friday, Mrs Vennells blamed 62-year-old Mrs MacLeod for pursuing an aggressive defence against Mr Bates and 554 other former sub postmasters to try to force them to abandon their High Court action over the Horizon computer system.
Postmasters have branded her decision not to appear as “despicable”.
Inquiry Chair Sir Wyn said it was possible her refusal was a criminal offence but that seeking a conviction in her absence and then extradition from Australia would delay the inquiry too long.
The BBC has reported that Mrs MacLeod may have hidden damning evidence found when the Post Office commissioned consultants Deloitte to investigate how Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon software was open to abuse.
Known as Project Bramble, the draft report is said to expose how the Post Office knew their defence against Mr Bates’ claims was untrue.
While Post Office lawyers continued to insist in the High Court that Horizon was a sealed system, Deloitte had written in Bramble that a “malicious actor” at Fujitsu could alter postmasters’ accounts without leaving a trace.