One afternoon in April 2024, I was about to enter Lidl on Hayling Island to do a weekend shop when a man rushed out of the entrance with a huge carrier bag filled to the top with steaks.

I rushed after him as he was walking fast and ran in front of him, stopped and asked him to go back and pay for the meat; he said he had done so, but I didn't believe him as he had exited from the entrance door.

So I grabbed the carrier bag, which he immediately let go of it, and he ran off.

I assume he offered no resistance, as all he would now do is go to another store and repeat the attempted theft and expect to be successful next time.  Why get involved with a potential assault charge?

The man was about 6’3”, and mid-thirties.  I then returned the meat to Lidl, who checked the meat over and confirmed the value of the meat was about £200, and confirmed still saleable.  While in the store, quite a few shoppers thanked me for my action and called me a hero; that really made me smile.

This week the Post Office Horizon Enquiry Phase 4 continues with further evidence and examination of those involved in audit and Investigation.  It will be interesting to discover how the Post Office and Fujitsu conducted these key activities.

Having been an auditor in a multinational company, and having audited financial processes and systems of comparable complexity to the Post Office Fujitsu Horizon System, I thought I should give my opinion on what has happened. 

The dreadful mistreatment of Sub-Postmasters should never have happened and I believe this situation could so easily have been avoided by standard accounting controls and audit, leading to earlier investigation, with the consequent far earlier detection and correction of defects.  Why was this allowed to happen?