Coalville MP Andrew Bridgen has used Parliamentary privilege to allege the IT company involved in the Post Office scandal deliberately targeted former Ibstock sub-postmaster Michael Rudkin.

Mr Bridgen, the MP for North West Leicestershire, was one of the first politicians to raise the alarm about the issue which saw hundreds of post office workers wrongly convicted and imprisoned for fraud.

But Mr Rudkin, former chairman of the National Federation of sub-postmasters, lost his job and union position, while wife Susan was wrongly convicted of stealing money.

She was given a suspended sentence and ordered to do 300 hours community service while being electronically tagged.

But the Express reports that Mr Bridgen said in Parliament this week: "Michael Rudkin visited Fujitsu's headquarters in Bracknell and inadvertently witnessed IT engineers there secretly altering the accounts of sub-postmasters in Horizon.

"When the managers at Fujitsu realised what my constituent had seen, they ejected him from the building, and he travelled back to his post office in Ibstock, where his wife Susan was his office manager."

"The next morning, Mr and Mrs Rudkin were subject to an early morning raid by the Post Office's inspectors, who declared that a £44,000 deficit had appeared on their computer overnight.

"Criminal convictions resulted. I never believed it was a coincidence that the Post Office found this massive deficit shortfall on my constituent's computer the same day he uncovered what Fujitsu was doing.

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"When I challenged Fujitsu, it said that Mr Rudkin had never been to its premises and it had lost the visitors' book for the day in question.

"My constituents want to know who will be held to account for more than a decade of false incrimination and humiliation suffered by my constituents."

The Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake also commented on 'the coincidence' suggested by Mr Bridgen.

His accusation suggests that there may have been a conspiracy to cover up the fault and push ahead with trials, even though the company and Post Office may have been aware of the faults.

Around 700 sub-postmasters were tried as a result of faulty Horizon software with more than 200 wrongly sent to prison for alleged fraud.

The ITV drama Mr Bates v The Post Office has highlighted the issue and brought it to the front of the news agenda.

Mr Hollinrake said: "Mr Rudkin was one of the stars of the show in the dramatisation, and I am so sorry to hear what happened to him and his wife through the Post Office's actions. It seems incredibly coincidental that those two things coincided—the visit to Fujitsu, what he discovered at that point and then what happened the next day in discovering a £44,000 shortfall in his accounts.

"We all now know that Fujitsu and the Post Office were able to amend the post office accounts.

"It seems incredibly coincidental, but also, as I said, brutal and cynical in terms of what might have happened.

"We should let Sir Wyn Williams determine exactly what has happened and who is responsible before we judge and blame.

"I am just as keen as the hon. Gentleman to see individuals held to account for what happened in this scandal."