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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Angela van den Bogerd, one of the Post Office’s senior witnesses in the Horizon litigation, left the organisation in May 2020 after Mr Justice Peter Fraser found in a 2019 civil judgment that she had not given frank evidence in two areas and had sought to “obfuscate matters, and mislead” him.
The phrase “via the back door” referred both to her discreet departure and to the Horizon litigation’s “back door” analogy: remote access that could allow Post Office or Fujitsu personnel to access or alter branch accounting data without a subpostmaster knowing.
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Who was Angela van den Bogerd?
Van den Bogerd began her career working at a post-office counter and rose through the organisation to become a senior Post Office executive. Her roles included People Services Director and Programme Director for the Branch Support Programme.
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She was also involved in handling postmaster complaints, mediation and work connected with the Horizon litigation. That made her one of the most senior Post Office figures to give evidence in the High Court proceedings brought by hundreds of subpostmasters.
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The case examined whether Horizon, the Fujitsu-supplied accounting system used in Post Office branches, was sufficiently reliable for unexplained shortfalls to be treated as evidence that postmasters had stolen money or falsified accounts.
What did the judge find?
In the Horizon Issues judgment, handed down on 15 March 2019, Fraser criticised the quality of van den Bogerd’s evidence. His conclusion was precise:
“There were two specific matters where [Van den Bogerd] did not give me frank evidence, and sought to obfuscate matters, and mislead me.”
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This was a finding in civil litigation about the reliability and candour of a witness’s evidence. It was not a criminal conviction, a prosecution or, on the evidence cited here, a formal finding of perjury.
The judgment identified two specific areas of concern. The most consequential was the evidence surrounding remote access to Horizon. The judgment’s detailed findings should be read in full rather than reduced to the claim that every aspect of van den Bogerd’s evidence was rejected. Its criticism was also part of a wider assessment of evidence from the Post Office and Fujitsu.
What was the Horizon “back door”?
“Back door” was not a literal entrance into a branch. It was a lay description of remote access to Horizon data.
The High Court found that Post Office and Fujitsu personnel could access and alter branch accounting data remotely without the subpostmaster knowing. Fraser cautioned that the analogy was not technically exact, but accepted it as a useful way to explain the capability to a non-technical audience.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesThat finding mattered because a remotely accessible account could not automatically be assumed to be a complete and unchanged record of what had happened in a branch. A discrepancy shown by Horizon might still require investigation into software bugs, data integrity, remote interventions and other possible explanations.
This did not mean that every shortfall was remotely created or deliberately manipulated. It did mean that Horizon data could not safely be treated as conclusive proof of criminal conduct without considering the system’s known limitations and the surrounding evidence.
Why did the departure attract attention?
The Post Office announced that van den Bogerd had left in May 2020 “to explore other opportunities”. It declined to disclose personal details or provide a fuller explanation.
Her departure drew attention because she was:
- a senior figure associated with the handling of postmaster complaints and the Horizon dispute;
- the witness whom Fraser had criticised in the 2019 judgment;
- leaving after the Post Office had lost the central technical dispute over Horizon’s reliability and remote-access capability; and
- departing while subpostmasters and campaigners were demanding accountability.
There is no verified public evidence in the cited sources establishing that she was dismissed or forced out. Campaigners and subpostmaster sources described her position as untenable, but that is not the same as an independently established reason for her departure.
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The litigation and its consequences
The High Court proceedings were brought by 555 subpostmasters, according to contemporary reporting. Many had faced demands for repayment, prosecution, financial ruin, imprisonment in some cases and profound personal harm after Horizon recorded unexplained accounting shortfalls.
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The 2019 Horizon Issues judgment addressed the system’s bugs, reliability, remote access and the Post Office’s approach to evidence. The wider litigation later ended in a settlement reported at £57.75 million, with approximately £11 million remaining for claimants after legal costs.
The settlement resolved the civil litigation but should not be treated as a finding that every allegation or every individual shortfall had the same cause. The significance of the judgment lay in undermining the assumption that Horizon records were inherently reliable and incapable of unauthorised alteration.
What happened after she left?
Van den Bogerd briefly became Head of People at the Football Association of Wales from December 2020 to March 2021. She later worked as a freelance HR consultant, according to her witness statement to the statutory Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry.
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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11Former chief executive Paula Vennells had already left the Post Office toward the end of 2019. Van den Bogerd’s May 2020 departure therefore formed part of a wider period of senior-level change, but the available sources do not establish that her departure was disciplinary or directly ordered by the organisation’s leadership.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What did later inquiry evidence add?
Van den Bogerd gave oral evidence to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry on 25 and 26 April 2024.
Later inquiry material and reporting raised further questions about when she knew that remote access to branch accounts was possible. Documents included communications from 2010, 2011 and 2014 concerning the ability to access or alter branch data. Those documents appeared to conflict with the account that she first knew of the capability in 2018.
This later evidence is important context, but it must be kept separate from the facts publicly reported when she left in May 2020. The documents and questioning became part of the inquiry’s later examination of what Post Office personnel knew, when they knew it and how that information was presented in the Horizon litigation.
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The later material also does not justify saying, without a specific authoritative finding, that the inquiry “proved she lied”. The careful description is that Fraser made a civil finding about her evidence in 2019, while subsequent inquiry evidence raised additional questions about her earlier knowledge of remote access.
What the “back door” story does—and does not—establish
The episode is significant for three separate reasons:
- The judicial finding: Fraser found that van den Bogerd was not frank in two areas and sought to obfuscate and mislead him.
- The technical issue: remote access meant that Horizon records could not automatically be treated as untouched, definitive evidence of a branch shortfall.
- The institutional question: the Post Office offered no public explanation beyond saying that she was pursuing other opportunities, leaving unresolved questions about accountability.
None of those points establishes that van den Bogerd was solely responsible for the Horizon scandal, that every Horizon discrepancy was fabricated, or that remote access alone caused every conviction. They do show why her evidence and departure became part of the wider scrutiny of how the Post Office investigated and prosecuted subpostmasters.
Primary documents remain the safest guide: the 2019 Horizon Issues judgment, the inquiry’s judgment extract, van den Bogerd’s inquiry witness statement, and the official records of her 25 April and 26 April 2024 evidence.
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