Criminal tests on the horizon of the post office may not start until 2028, the police officer who led the investigation has told the BBC.

“Teams need to be really carefully and [pay] Pay attention to the expansion, but in reality we are making some real progress, “Met CDR Stephen Cleman said.

The investigation has identified seven suspects, and there are 45 to 50 possible suspects. But this would not submit the files to the prosecutors until the final report was published from a public inquiry into the scandal expected later this year.

Former sub-postmaster Tim Brentonol stated that the victims were “desperate to see any kind of accountability”, but the police were called “it should do it properly”.

The horizon IT system, which began to function in 1999, misrepresented the post office branches, for which sub-postmasters were held liable.

More than 900 people were prosecuted, and some went to jail. Some died while waiting for justice.

Last year, a law was passed to reverse those defects.

Criminal investigations in the scam, Operation Olympos, began in 2020, and interviewed two suspects in 2021.

It increased the activity after a public phase of investigation in December last year, and one and two people were interviewed under caution, where their answers could be used as evidence in court. Both were men in their 60s.

CDR Cleman stated that the police started “the front line with those investigators of the Post Office, who were involved in immediate decision making”.

But he said: “We are starting the scope to see wider management. This will happen, and it is happening, it will take time to reach there.”

They are confident that there will be criminal trials, but admit that the previous one may not start by 2028.

The President of the Public Inquiry, Sir Vyan Williams, will publish volume 1 of his final report on 8 July and is expected to enter Volume 2 later this year.

The police will then have to undergo “careful”, the Crown Prosecution Service will have to hand over the files, and wait for the court date, CDR Cleman said.

“It’s not uncommon,” he said. “Other major investigations related to a public investigation are exactly the same thing. And I really understand the disappointment for those who are in this center, who are suffering.”

Former sub-postmaster tim buntal Roach, Pambrookshire, was prosecuted in 2010 when his branch was detected by £ 22,500. His sentence was overturned in 2021.

“The way the post office sued me was completely and completely wrong, [I was] In the headlights, a rabbit ran away in front of the courts and told that I was the only one in this situation when I was not, “he said.

“But if the police have to take their time, they should take their time and do it properly.”

David Enterite, a lawyer, whose firm Hove and Sah represented seven of the 10 sub-postmasters who participated in the investigation, said: “The fact is that we have ever seen the sub-postmaster without seeing any true accounting. Question is asked by the police investigation: Where is the police investigation?”

Olymps located in four regional hubs are working on 108 officers. CDR Cleman was speaking in the Metropolitan Police Hub near the top of a high-wide police office block in South London South London.

The authorities spent most of their days through millions of digital documents, which would make a lot of evidence in cases.

They started with 1.5 million, and it is ready to grow up to six million as more documents come to light.

England and Wales include every force, as PSNI and police are Scotland.

CDR Cleman was first important for the post office not to give adequate information not to hand over the information rapidly, but said he was now getting “quite good”. Fujitsu, he said, being “very cooperative”.

A post office spokesperson said: “The post office has fully and openly cooperated with the metropolitan police from the beginning of 2020, which to provide the information required to investigate it, and we continue to do so.”

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