CCRC formally sends Submit Workplace Seize referral to Courtroom of Enchantment

The Prison Instances Evaluate Fee (CCRC) has formally referred the primary attraction towards conviction of a Submit Workplace Seize consumer to the Courtroom of Enchantment, months after deciding to take action.

The attraction entails the case of Patricia Owen, who died in 2003. She pleaded not responsible to the theft of £6,000, however in 1998 was convicted and sentenced to 6 months’ imprisonment, suspended for 2 years, at Canterbury Crown Courtroom.

In July this 12 months, it emerged that the CCRC had determined Owen’s case could be referred for attraction, however it didn’t accomplish that till yesterday (15 October).

On the similar time, the statutory physique stated that 4 appeals towards convictions of former Seize customers won’t be referred, as a result of the CCRC’s statutory check for referral had not been met.

“Not like Mrs Owen’s case, 4 of those circumstances have been decided by a committee of three commissioners to not increase an actual chance that the conviction could be overturned,” stated the CCRC.

On the months it has taken to formally refer Owen’s case, the CCRC stated: “There may be at all times a time period between a choice being made by a committee and the precise referral to the appellate court docket.”

Owen’s lawyer, Neil Hudgell at Hudgell Solicitors, stated the formal referral of her case and new proof might assist different former Seize customers to clear their names.

Seize, which predates Fujitsu’s Horizon system, was utilized in Submit Workplace branches within the Nineties to switch paper-based accounting. Like with the controversial Horizon system on the centre of the Submit Workplace scandal, which noticed subpostmasters blamed for unexplained losses, some Seize customers have been prosecuted for monetary crimes.

The controversy over Seize emerged in January final 12 months after ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Submit Workplace instructed the tales of subpostmasters who had suffered by the hands of the Horizon system.

In the identical month, Kevan Jones, an MP on the time who now sits within the Home of Lords, highlighted proof of injustices triggered by Seize losses.

This led to a marketing campaign and, by December 2024, the federal government promised monetary redress and justice for subpostmasters affected by Seize issues. This adopted an unbiased investigation by forensic consultants at Kroll, which discovered there was a “affordable chance” the Submit Workplace Seize software program brought on accounting losses.

Hudgell stated the formal referral of Owen’s attraction “is a very vital second for these individuals who have been affected by Seize, as that is the primary conviction to be formally referred to the Courtroom of Enchantment.

“Importantly, it’s being carried out so with proof which clearly demonstrates folks have been prosecuted with out all of the info at hand, and with out proof which might probably have prevented them from being convicted.”

He added: “Step one now could be taking Mrs Owen’s case to the Courtroom of Enchantment and seeing her conviction quashed. In mild of the brand new proof which we now have at hand, we are going to hopefully have the ability to open the door to all others who have been prosecuted by Seize-based proof to clear their names, as occurred with Horizon.”

Dame Vera Baird KC, chair of the CCRC, stated: “We’ve greater than 30 functions to refer Submit Workplace convictions which predate Horizon and most of those circumstances are beneath energetic investigation. In a few of these very previous circumstances, there’s a dearth of paperwork, dates or different info.  

“We’ve exercised our powers beneath part 17 of the Prison Enchantment Act 1995 to require the Submit Workplace to provide all the fabric they’ve in every case, and they’ll present it the place it’s accessible.” 

Laptop Weekly first uncovered the scandal in 2009, revealing the tales of seven subpostmasters and the issues they suffered as a result of Horizon accounting software program.

Learn: Every part you’ll want to know concerning the Submit Workplace scandal.