Four more subpostmasters set to have convictions overturned
Summary
“We are continuing to make strenuous efforts to contact and assist people with potentially relevant historical convictions to appeal if they wish.” And there could be many more. Between 2000 and 2015, a total of 736 subpostmasters were convicted based on evidence from the Horizon accounting and retail system used by Post Office branches, which was found in the High Court to be error-prone. The government-owned Post Office always denied that Horizon – supplied by Fujitsu – could be to blame for the accounting shortfalls, and subpostmasters and their families had their lives turned upside down, with criminal prosecutions for hundreds and many more financially ruined. In December 2019, a multimillion-pound group litigation, brought by 555 subpostmasters, ended with the Post Office conceding that the Horizon computer system was to blame for shortfalls. They were excluded from the scheme because the Post Office and the government said the damages paid when the subpostmasters won the High Court action were full and final.