In a historic legal battle amid the “biggest miscarriage of justice” in recent history, thirty nine sub-postmasters won as their names were cleared after judges quashed their criminal convictions. They were wrongly accused of false accounting for over a decade by a state-owned Post-Office when the books didn’t match the branch’s accounts.
“It later emerged that the discrepancies were caused by the Post Office’s faulty IT system, Horizon. The court heard the prosecutions led to “shame and humiliation” for those wrongly jailed. Some suffered marriage break-ups and others bankruptcy. Three died as convicted criminals. The ruling could pave the way for many of the other 700 sub-postmasters to challenge their criminal convictions between 2000 and 2013,” The Times reported.
Six of these people had their magistrates’ court convictions overturned last year. The Post Office had demanded the sub-postmasters to repay thousands of pounds purely relying on the evidence from Horizon, only to find later that it had IT that caused discrepancies. However, three sub-postmasters lost their appeals as their cases were not based on Horizon evidence. It has been said that Post Office bosses “knew that there were problems with Horizon”.
Speaking to Asian Voice, Sandip Patel QC, Managing Partner at Aliant Law, London, and a Barrister, said, ““On Friday, 39 former Post Office workers saw their wrongful criminal convictions overturned by the Court of Appeal in a judgment that establishes prosecutions brought by the Post Office amounted to an affront to public consciousness. However, this is merely the tip of an iceberg. More appeals are expected because it is believed some 700 people were also affected in perhaps the most wide-ranging and systematic miscarriages of justice in English legal history. In my view, there should be a public instead of a government inquiry so that the public get the answers they deserve. Also, those responsible for this travesty of justice should be held accountable and prosecuted, if appropriate. Finally, the victims should be fully compensated for the unimaginable misery caused by the Post Office.”
Post-mistress Seema Misra was pregnant for the second time when she was imprisoned for a crime she didn’t commit in 2010. Speaking to The Guardian, Seema said, “I was standing in the dock and just wanted to hold his hand. It’s hard to say but I think that if I had not been pregnant, I would have killed myself.”
The Guardian claimed that Seema was suspended as the post office operator in West Byfleet, Surrey, in 2005 for three years after an audit found an accounting discrepancy of £74,000. The British press stooped low and called her “pregnant thief”
Others whose convictions were quashed who had served a jail term was 62 year old Vijay Parekh (former train dispatcher at Euston station in London). “After his release it took him years of searching to find work. “Because of that CRB check you really can’t work anywhere at all. Now it will have been cleared and I could look for a job but I have reached retirement age,” he told The Guardian.
The grave injustice also lead to bankruptcy, imprisonment and suicide on the long journey to justice. One former postmaster, Martin Grif fiths, killed himself after he was falsely accused of stealing £60,000. Others died with convictions against their names.
In a statement after the ruling, Post Office chairman Tim Parker said: “The Post Office is extremely sorry for the impact on the lives of these postmasters and their families that was caused by historical failures.”
Meanwhile, ex-Post Office chief Paula Vennells has quit retailer boardroom roles after sub-postmasters have convictions overturned. It has to be noted that Ms Vennells was chief executive of the Post Office from 2012 to 2019 when reports of a faulty IT system called Horizon were not properly investigated.
Asian Voice was unable to reach Seema Misra for a comment.
