Put up Workplace Seize and Ecco+ customers requested to make contact with Scottish statutory physique
The Scottish Prison Circumstances Overview Fee (SCCRC) is trying to contact any former subpostmasters that might have been prosecuted for unexplained losses on the Put up Workplace’s pre-Horizon Seize software program.
There are former subpostmasters that, like Horizon customers, might have been convicted of crimes primarily based on information from these programs.
For the reason that Put up Workplace Horizon scandal hit the mainstream in January 2024 – revealing to a large viewers the struggling skilled by subpostmasters who had been blamed for errors within the Horizon accounting system – customers of Put up Workplace software program that predated Horizon have come ahead, supported by campaigning peer Kevan Jones, to inform their tales, which echoed these of victims of the Horizon scandal.
The Prison Circumstances Overview Fee for England and Wales is now reviewing 21 instances of potential wrongful conviction, put ahead by regulation agency Hudgell Solicitors, the place the Seize IT system could possibly be an element.
Seize was a PC-based utility developed by the Put up Workplace and uploaded onto a private pc to hold out department accounts.
The software program was a standalone system, not like Horizon, which is a fancy, networked system linked to centralised providers (see under for timeline of Seize developments since January 2024).
The SCCRC is now calling on folks which may have been convicted primarily based on Seize accounts to return ahead. “The fee encourages anybody who believes that their prison conviction, or that of a relative, might need been affected by the Seize system to make contact with it,” it stated.
Third system
The statutory physique can be investigating a 3rd Put up Workplace system, often known as Ecco+, which was additionally error-prone. It was thought this technique was solely utilized in Crown branches (immediately managed by the Put up Workplace) and Crown branches that had been taken over by subpostmasters. However Pc Weekly has found that Ecco+ might really be purchased by subpostmasters to be used of their branches.
“We’re presently investigating potential miscarriages of justice referring to issues with varied pc programs utilized in Put up Workplace branches within the Nineteen Nineties (Seize, Ecco+),” the SCCRC stated.
Learn the SCCRC’s associated info sheet.
In Might 2024, Scottish Parliament introduced its personal laws to exonerate subpostmasters with convictions primarily based on proof from the Horizon system.
This adopted the same regulation launched for England and Wales in March final 12 months that noticed over 700 former subpostmasters exonerated.
A complete of 64 former subpostmasters in Scotland have now had their convictions overturned by the laws introduced by Scottish Parliament.
Up to now, 97 convicted subpostmasters have come ahead, and 86 have been assessed, out of which the 64 have been overturned. Nevertheless, 22 have been rejected and one other 11 are nonetheless to be assessed.
An impartial group, fronted by a former Scottish subpostmaster, can be calling on customers of any of the Put up Workplace programs to return ahead to inform their tales, and for assist in looking for justice and redress.
The Scottish Postmasters for Justice and Redress, because the group is understood, will formally launch tomorrow at Scottish Parliament. It was arrange by Rab Thomson, a former subpostmaster of a department close to Alloa, who had a wrongful theft conviction overturned final 12 months.
The group has the assist of former Scottish Nationalist Social gathering MP Marion Fellows, who was chair of the All-Social gathering Put up Workplace Parliamentary Group, and Calum Greenhow, the present CEO of the Nationwide Federation of Subpostmasters.
