A compensation scheme for sub-postmasters believed to have lost money while using Capture – a basic Post Office accounting system rolled out to branches in the 1990s before the notorious Horizon programme – has finally been agreed with the Government.
In a precursor to the Horizon scandal, Capture was prone to bugs and faults but sub-postmasters were forced to hand over money, sacked and in some cases criminally prosecuted by the Post Office for accounting errors.
The Capture software was rolled out to Post Office branches starting in 1992
The Department for Business and Trade has since met with victims who have been told that they will receive redress and last week set out the form and scope of the Capture scheme, which is separate to the £1billion set aside for Horizon victims.
The scheme has been agreed but is awaiting the “final step” of approval in Whitehall, The i Paper understands.
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He was at the meeting with DBT officials in London and said: “I did impress on them again that time is our enemy.
It also hoped that the first of 28 criminal convictions with links to Capture evidence, currently being reviewed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), could be put before the Court of Appeal as soon as the autumn.
At the meeting, Capture victims were assured the Government will agree “whatever figures are necessary” to make sure they are properly compensated.
“I think they intend it to be a lot more streamlined. And where people don’t have much evidence they are going to take the word of the postmaster.”
Steve Marston was prosecuted by the Post Office in 1998 (Photo: Tom Pilston/The i Paper)The software was developed in-house by the Post Office but documents shared with The i Paper last year showed the IT team repeatedly sent out bulletins admitting bugs which could cause accounting errors.
A Freedom of Information request showed the Post Office carried out more than 200 private prosecutions in the three years after Capture was introduced.
“Officials met with postmasters as part of our commitment to develop an effective and fair redress process for those affected by Capture.
A CCRC spokesperson said: “We have considered the cases included in the Kroll report and are reviewing two of these where there were criminal convictions in England and Wales in which Capture appears to have been a factor.
“We continue to liaise with the Department for Business and Trade and the Post Office to identify other cases in which Capture could have played a part.
Former sub-postmistress June Tooby and her husband Ken, before her death in 2020
In March, the Post Office issued a landmark apology to a Capture victim’s family, its first apology related to the faulty IT system.
In the letter, the Post Office admitted for the first time that there were “significant failings” in Capture. Simon Recaldin, director of the Remediation Unit at the Post Office, told Ken Tooby: “I am writing to apologise sincerely and unreservedly to you, on behalf of the company and myself.
“It is clear through the efforts of former Postmasters and their families that there were significant failings at the Post Office relating to Capture.”
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