Post Office investigators used racist terms while gathering data to prosecute wrongful fraud.

More than 700 junior postmasters have been wrongly accused of stealing from post offices, many were convicted before their decision was overturned. Photo: Yui Mok/PA Wire

In fact, a faulty computer accounting system called Horizon resulted in false losses due to flaws in its program.

It turned out that post office managers were aware of errors in software created by Fujitsu, but decided to hide them.

People of the «Negroid type» were identified by Post Office Security in the document as being from the West Indies, Nigeria, Africa and the Caribbean.

< p>the report was obtained under freedom of information laws by campaigner Eleanor Sheikh, whose local deputy postmaster was involved in the post office's years-long legal campaign.

A post office spokesperson said, «The Post Office does not tolerate racism in any what form. The language used in this historic document is utterly disgusting and is condemned by today's post office.

«We fully support the Post Office's investigations into past wrongdoing and believe that the Horizon IT investigation will help ensure that today's Post Office has the trust of its postmasters and the communities it supports.»

The spokesperson confirmed that the Post Office's investigations , which issued the document, no longer exists.

Sources have suggested that the racially offensive term may have been coined by ex-cops hired by Post Office security.

The list of racial categories in the Post Office document strongly resembles the Police Identification Code (IC) system used to classify crime suspects by ethnicity.

The latest scandal threatens to overwhelm the postal operator as it grapples with mounting losses and faces accusations that top executives paid themselves bonuses for providing evidence in a public inquiry into the Horizon scandal.

Kevin Hollinrake, Business Secretary, demanded an «immediate explanation» from the post office after part of the £450,000 CEO Nick Reed's bonus was paid for providing «all necessary evidence and information on time».

Reid c has since apologized to the Department. of business and trade and agreed to return an undisclosed amount of the bonus.

More than 700 junior postmasters were erroneously prosecuted in the 2000s and early 2010s in what has been called the greatest miscarriage of justice in British legal history.< /p>

This led to the bankruptcy of several affected postmasters, who were forced to cover Horizon's losses themselves. More than 30 people died before the saga was revealed, and some were driven to suicide.

Survivors face an ongoing struggle for compensation as both the Post Office and ministers delay payments to victims.

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