Post Office inquiry live updates: Former chief exec David Smith giving evidence

Hodgkinson is being asked about the case of Julie Kay – nee Wolstenholme – a former sub-postmistress whose life was turned upside down when her Post Office branch was shuttered in 2000.

Because of Horizon, she couldn’t make her accounts balance and so her business was suspended by the Post Office.

It led to her staff being laid off and the breakdown of her family. She and her children ended up sleeping in a caravan in her parent’s garden.

In her witness statement to the inquiry, Kay said it meant her “future just disappeared”.

When the Post Office began civil proceedings in 2003 to recover what they said was missing money, Kay’s solicitor enlisted an IT expert who looked into Horizon and found the technology may well be faulty.

In the end, the Post Office settled out of court with Kay and paid her compensation, though she never got her business back.

Hodgkinson tells the inquiry he was not made aware of the settlement with Kay, and was never told about systemic Horizon issues while he was with the Post Office.

Sir Wyn Williams interjects to ask how such a “significant sum” of money could be paid out without the board being made aware. Hodgkinson says he should have been told but wasn’t.