The Post Office has handed over evidence relating to dozens of alleged wrongful convictions linked to Capture, a piece of software linked to a second IT scandal, The i Paper can reveal.
More potential victims of the Capture scandal have come forward following confirmation from the Government that the software – rolled out to branches in the 90s – was faulty. It has set up a new compensation scheme for victims which will open this autumn.
While Capture victims have welcomed the compensation and official acknowledgment from the Government more than three decades after they were accused of being responsible for cash “shortfalls” at their Post Office branches, there remains concern for those who received criminal convictions and want them to be overturned.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which is the only body with the power to take cases back to the courts, told The i Paper it is now dealing with 29 cases which pre-date Horizon and 25 have been appointed “case review managers” who are “actively investigating” their cases.
The Post Office has been served with a legal notice requiring it to hand over all the evidence it has and the CCRC said it has so far received “some material” in 17 of these cases. In five cases the Post Office says it does not hold any evidence and in six cases it has yet to respond.
Although the Post Office has expressed “concerns” about potential wrongful convictions that predate Horizon, it has never formally admitted that evidence used in Capture cases may have been flawed.
The Capture software was rolled out to Post Office branches starting in 1992It follows months of reporting by The i Paper into the scandal which had been hidden for more than 30 years. Former sub-postmasters and their families claim they were wrongfully pursued by the Post Office while using Capture.
The software was written in-house by the Post Office’s IT team and The i Paper obtained bulletins from the 90s in which postmasters were warned it was prone to bugs and glitches.
But postmasters who suffered shortfalls while using Capture were still criminally prosecuted despite insisting they had never stolen any money.
While Capture victims welcomed the news, there remains concern for those who received criminal convictions and want them to be overturned.
The Government has resisted calls for a new clause to be added to emergency legislation which was used last year to quash around 900 Horizon convictions.
Ministers agreed to the unprecedented move because it was taking so long for the courts to deal with the volume of cases they faced.
However, no such agreement has been made for Capture victims, in large part because no case has yet been tested by the Court of Appeal.
CCRC under pressure after recent failures
The CCRC remains under pressure over its performance after a string of high-profile miscarriages of justice which took decades to resolve.
Last month, Peter Sullivan, who spent 38 years in jail for a crime he didn’t commit, had his conviction for murder overturned.
The CCRC, which recently appointed Dame Vera Baird as its new interim chairwoman, was accused of failing Mr Sullivan by not doing enough work to establish there was pivotal DNA evidence which cleared him.
The watchdog has now been investigating Capture cases for more than a year but has yet to recommend a case be put before the Court of Appeal.
The situation is all the more frustrating for Capture victims after an IT expert who was due to give evidence about the system’s faults back in 1998 came forward.
Adrian Montagu was instructed by the legal team acting for sub-postmistress Patricia Owen when she was accused of theft.
His report at the time described Capture as “quite capable of producing absurd gibberish”, and has “several insidious faults… which would not be necessarily apparent to the user”.
For reasons which Mr Montagu cannot explain, he was never called to give evidence and Ms Owen was found guilty by a jury.
The evidence has now been handed over to the CCRC by the family of Ms Owen, who died in 2003.
Former postmaster Steve Marston, 69, was also convicted of theft and false accounting offences and urged the CCRC to move more quickly.
“There’s an overwhelming amount of evidence that our convictions are unsafe,” he told The i Paper.
“I’ve seen the report [by Mr Montagu] and it’s horrifying.
“It should be pretty much an open and shut case – I really don’t see why there should be much of a hold up.”
‘Give CCRC a cut-off date to get cases in court’
Steve Marston was prosecuted by the Post Office in 1998 (Photo: Tom Pilston/The i Paper)The respected Labour peer and former MP Kevan Jones, who now sits as Lord Beamish, has repeatedly argued that Capture victims should also be exonerated using Parliamentary legislation.
Last year he tabled an amendment which suggested a new clause could be added to the existing Horizon laws.
The previous Tory government rejected that approach on the basis they wanted to see a case go before the Court of Appeal but Mr Marston believes victims should not have to wait any longer.
“There should be a cut-off date [for the CCRC],” he added.
“If they haven’t started by then [getting a case to the Court of Appeal] then go straight to exoneration and be done with it.”
The Department for Business and Trade yesterday reiterated its position that “those with criminal convictions related to Capture should pursue their cases through the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) or its Scottish equivalent”.
square POST OFFICE SCANDAL ‘I’m a second Post Office scandal victim - we deserve compensation before we die’
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A CCRC spokesperson said: “We have received applications regarding 29 convictions which pre-date Horizon. 25 of these applications are being actively investigated by case review managers, and two more recent applications are in the preparatory stage and will be assigned to case review managers before the end of June.
“We have issued notices under section 17 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 to Post Office Ltd requiring them to produce all material relating to the applications received. To date, POL have provided some material in relation to 17 of the cases and confirmed that they hold no material in relation to another 5. The CCRC is awaiting a response from POL in relation to 6 cases.”
A Post Office spokesperson said: “We have been very concerned about the reported problems relating to the use of the Capture software and are sincerely sorry for past failings that have caused suffering to postmasters.
“We are determined that past wrongs are put right and continue to support the Government’s work as well as fully cooperate with the CCRC.
“We are in regular discussions with them including in relation to the six cases they have mentioned.”
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