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The Court of Appeal has cleared 12 more former subpostmasters who were wrongly convicted of offences as a result of the Post Office Horizon scandal.  

In April, 39 former subpostmasters who were convicted and even jailed for theft, fraud and false accounting had their names cleared - some after fighting for nearly 20 years.

On Monday, three senior judges overturned the convictions of a further 12 people who were convicted based on evidence from the faulty IT system used by the Post Office from 2000. 

Hundreds of innocent Post Office staff were blamed for losses in branch accounts caused by serious flaws in the Fujitsu-developed Horizon computer system which was in use between 1999 and 2015.

The Court of Appeal has cleared 12 more former subpostmasters who were wrongly convicted of offences as a result of the Post Office Horizon scandal. Pictured: Former Post Office workers celebrating in April after their convictions were overturned

Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds of postmasters were sacked or prosecuted after money appeared to go missing from their branch accounts (file image) 

Rather than admit the IT system was defective, the Post Office concealed evidence of the glitches and instead forced its own staff to plead guilty to crimes they knew they had not committed, lawyers representing the 42 who sought to get their convictions overturned by the Court of Appeal said.

Many postmasters and postmistresses were prosecuted for theft, fraud and false accounting, while others were hounded out of work or forced to pay huge sums of 'missing' money. The scandal blighted their lives, as former staff lost their homes and marriages, and suffered ill health as a result.  

What was the Horizon computer system and how did it go wrong?

Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds of postmasters were sacked or prosecuted after money appeared to go missing from their branch accounts (file image) 

Horizon, an IT system developed by the Japanese company Fujitsu, was rolled out by the Post Office from 1999.

The system was used for tasks such as transactions, accounting and stocktaking. However, subpostmasters complained about defects after it reported shortfalls - some of which amounted to thousands of pounds.  

Some subpostmasters attempted to plug the gap with their own money, even remortgaging their homes, in an attempt to correct an error.

Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds of subpostmasters were sacked or prosecuted due to the glitches. The ex-workers blamed flaws in the IT system, Horizon, but the Post Office denied there was a problem.

In case after case the Post Office bullied postmasters into pleading guilty to crimes they knew they had not committed.

Many others who were not convicted were hounded out of their jobs or forced to pay back thousands of pounds of 'missing' money.

The Post Office spent £32million to deny any fault in their IT system, before capitulating. 

However, the postmasters and postmistresses said the scandal ruined their lives as they had to cope with the impact of a conviction and imprisonment, some while they had been pregnant or had young children.

Marriages broke down, and courts have heard how some families believe the stress led to health conditions, addiction and premature deaths.

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One former postmaster, Martin Griffiths, killed himself after he was falsely suspected of stealing £60,000, while some have since died and 'gone to their graves' with convictions against their names.   

Lord Justice Holroyde and two other judges quashed the convictions of Robert Ambrose, Hasmukh Shingadia, John Armstrong, Timothy Brentnall, Jerry Hosi, Gurdeep Singh Dhale, John Dickson, Abiodun Omotoso, Malcolm Watkins, Sami Sabet, Carina Price and Rizwan Manjra.

Their appeals were unopposed by the Post Office, and the judge said the court would give full reasons in writing at a later date, but that they should be cleared as soon as possible in the circumstances. 

In a statement after the ruling, Post Office chairman Tim Parker issued a grovelling apology for 'the impact on the lives of these postmasters and their families that was caused by historical failures'.

The Post Office had spent £32million to deny any fault in Horizon before capitulating and has since paid a £58million settlement to 557 postmasters following an acrimonious High Court battle. It now faces a further 2,400 claims under a new compensation scheme.  

But lawyers representing the former postmasters claimed the Post Office 'still appears to care little about the people whose lives it has destroyed' and called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to announce a 'judge-led public inquiry', with the power to summons witnesses, into the prosecutions of postmasters. 

The Communication Workers Union called for criminal investigations into senior Post Office figures who 'oversaw the criminalisation of hundreds of postmasters' and called for former CEO Paula Vennells, who is said to have known that Horizon could cause money to appear to be missing, to be stripped of her CBE.  

Nick Read, Post Office chief executive, said: 'The quashing of historical convictions is a vital milestone in fully and properly addressing the past as I work to put right these wrongs as swiftly as possible, and there must be compensation that reflects what has happened.' 

In a statement, Helen Pitcher, chairman of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) - which referred the 42 subpostmasters' convictions to the Court of Appeal - said: 'This has been a serious miscarriage of justice which has had a devastating impact on these victims and their families.

'Every single one of these convictions has clearly had a profound and life-changing impact for those involved.

'Six convictions had already been quashed which had been referred to Southwark Crown Court.

'The Post Office has rightly acknowledged the failures that led to these cases and conceded that the prosecutions were an abuse of process.

Former subpostmasters Janet Skinner (left) and Tracy Felstead (right) outside the Royal Courts of Justice, London, ahead of their appeal against a conviction of theft, fraud and false accounting in March

'We sincerely hope that lessons will be learned from this to prevent anything similar happening elsewhere in the future.' 

From wrongful imprisonment to strokes and even suicide: How the Horizon IT scandal devastated victims' lives 

Welsh postmaster jailed for nine months 'fell off the ladder' after conviction - before picking himself up and seeking challenge to Post Office prosecution

Noel Thomas was jailed for nine months in 2006 after he was accused of stealing £48,000

Noel Thomas was jailed for nine months in 2006 after he was accused of stealing £48,000 while he was working for the Post Office in Gaerwen on Anglesey.

He told the BBC that he admitted to the charge because he never reported discrepancies he noticed, but insisted he did not take the money and blamed the Horizon computer system.

'I want everyone to have their name cleared and to get to the bottom of what has happened and where the money has gone to,' Mr Thomas told BBC Newyddion 9.

'Thirteen years after jail, I must admit it was hard but I gradually got my confidence back through family, friends and work colleagues.

'Yes, I do feel bitter, and not just for myself - the Post Office have been coming and telling people that they have taken money, that they are a thief.'

 

Family of postmaster who killed himself after being wrongly accused of theft demand Post Office bosses are held accountable

Martin Griffiths, 59, took his own life in 2013 after he was falsely suspected of stealing money from Post Office

Father-of-two Martin Griffiths, 59, took his own life in 2013 after he was falsely suspected of stealing money from a Post Office in Ellesmere Port, where he had worked for around 20 years. 

Mr Griffiths was one of hundreds of postmasters who were suspected of false accounting and theft, with some fired or wrongfully convicted, after amounts appeared to vanish from their tills.  

The family of Mr Griffiths said he delved into his own savings and those of his parents to pay back around £60,000 he was wrongly suspected of taking from the branch.

The turmoil lasted for four years, between 2009 and 2013, and had a huge impact on the father-of-two's physical and mental health, his family said.  

In 2013, Mr Griffiths parked his car on the A41 in Ellesmere Port after leaving a note for his loved ones and took his own life. 

His family have called for a stricter line of review from the Government and asked for a judge-led enquiry to get to the bottom of the injustices behind the scandal. 

 

Postmaster caught up in major IT scandal which saw many falsely accused of accounting fraud suffered a STROKE after he was hounded for £65,000

Peter Murray said he suffered a series of breakdowns and a stroke after he was hounded for £65,000

Peter Murray said he suffered a series of breakdowns and a stroke after he was hounded for £65,000. The 53-year-old, from Wallasey in Merseyside, has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

He said he was suspended without pay and forced to take out loans and borrow from friends to make monthly repayments to the Post Office. 

He paid £1,000 a month before learning that he was among many sub-postmasters to face false accusations.

'It left me completely devastated,' added the father of three. 'It caused absolute havoc for my family, I have had several nervous breakdowns. It made me feel like a convict, but I'm not going to let it beat me.'

 

Wife finally clears name of her postmaster husband after he died while still facing false Post Office claim he had stolen £46,000

Marion Holmes, 78, won justice for her late husband, Peter Holmes, who was a respected postmaster in Jesmond, Newcastle, before the Post Office Horizon scandal 'destroyed' his good name

Marion Holmes, 78, won justice for her husband, Peter, who was a respected postmaster before the Post Office Horizon scandal 'destroyed' his good name. 

Ex-police officer Peter Holmes had successfully run a sub Post Office in Jesmond, Newcastle, for 13 years, before his world came crashing down due to issues with the Horizon computer system.

When more than £46,000 went missing from his books in 2008, Peter found police at his door and shocking criminal accusations made against him.

He was forced to admit four counts of false accounting in order to for prosecutors to drop charges of theft of the money, which could have seen him sent to prison.

In fact, Peter was one of a number of people wrongly prosecuted by the Post Office over errors its own system had made.

 

Family of one postmaster said he died a broken man after being forced to clean graves as punishment for a crime he did not commit

Julian Wilson (pictured with his wife Karen) was shattered by injustice and exhausted by his attempts to clear his name

Julian Wilson was shattered by injustice and exhausted by his attempts to clear his name, they said. He died in 2016, at the age of 67, of bowel cancer. His wife Karen says the disease had it roots in the trauma he endured and the all-consuming campaign for redemption.

For years the Post Office had stubbornly insisted its IT systems – called Horizon and designed by a company called Fujitsu – never lied, calling them 'robust'.

Last year, following a court case brought by 557 postmasters, Mr Justice Fraser branded Horizon not 'remotely robust'.

He added: 'This approach by the Post Office has amounted, in reality, to bare assertions and denials that ignore what has actually occurred.

'It amounts to the 21st century equivalent of maintaining that the earth is flat.'

 

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At a hearing in March, the court heard subpostmasters' lives were 'irreparably ruined' as they lost their jobs, homes and marriages after they were prosecuted by the Post Office, which knew the Fujitsu-developed system had 'faults and bugs from the earliest days of its operation'.

Hundreds of people who ran Post Office branches were convicted of various offences during the period of time the system was being used.

The court is also considering appeals brought by a further 18 subpostmasters on Monday and is likely to issue directions as to how their cases should progress.

Solicitor Neil Hudgell, of Hudgell Solicitors - who represented the 12 cleared on Monday as well as 33 former subpostmasters who have cleared their names so far - said in April: 'Each and every subpostmaster walked out of the Royal Courts of Justice and down the steps with their heads held high... completely exonerated and found to be entirely innocent by the courts.

'Now we want to make sure we deliver the same outcome for every other family affected by this. The work goes on.' 

Three Court of Appeal judges castigated the Government-owned Post Office in April for hounding its own staff before squandering public money trying to cover up the scandal.  

Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds of postmasters were sacked or prosecuted after money appeared to go missing from their branch accounts.

Post Office bosses were told glitches in the Fujitsu-developed Horizon computer terminals in branches may be to blame but pursued prosecutions anyway.  

In 2019, the Post Office paid a £58million settlement to 557 postmasters following an acrimonious High Court battle, which found the Horizon accounting system contained 'bugs, errors and defects'.

And last year, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) referred the cases of 42 former subpostmasters - many of whom went to prison - to the Court of Appeal.  

The Treasury is braced for payouts that could total hundreds of millions as many of the 685 sub-postmasters who were convicted could claim damages. 

'The scandal, labelled the biggest miscarriage of justice in UK history, has already cost the taxpayer £254million in legal fees and compensation.

Campaigners have demanded that police investigate Post Office bosses and Paula Vennells, who presided over the scandal as chief executive from 2012 to 2019, has faced calls to be stripped of her CBE. 

Tory peer Lord Arbuthnot said: 'It wasn't until November last year we discovered the Post Office had known for many, many years that their entire prosecution process was riddled with deception, something they then tried to cover up with their shredding of documents.

'It is high time the police began to take a serious look at whether the Post Office management have been perverting the course of justice.'

In total there are believed to be 3,000 postmaster victims who lost their livelihoods, were bankrupted and fell into ill-health after being chased for 'missing' cash.  

The Prime Minister has launched an independent inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal and the police are investigating two Post Office IT experts, which could result in charges of perjury. 

Last year a judge said the Post Office's computer experts knew about problems in its IT system in 1999 – 15 years before the company stopped prosecuting postmasters.

But despite the gravity of the case, not a single Post Office boss, civil servant or minister has been sacked.

Paula Vennells, 62, who ran the company between 2012 and 2019, is accused of covering up the fiasco and dragging hundreds of postmasters into the costly court battle.

She has been forced to resign from a series of prestigious roles but has held on to her CBE for 'services to the Post Office and charity'. 

The Post Office earlier said: 

'Our priority is to fairly resolve the applications... as soon as possible.' 

Mr Furey said the CWU wanted the Post Office's former CEO Paula Vennells to be stripped of her CBE.

Ms Vennells was the chief executive during the period where hundreds of postmasters were blamed for losses from branch accounts because of errors in the Horizon computer system.

An ordained priest, she joined the Post Office in 2007 and was promoted to CEO in 2012. She is said to have known that money could appear to be missing from the accounts.   

After leaving the Post Office, she landed roles as an adviser to the Cabinet Office and chairman of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London. She was given a CBE in 2019 for services to the Post Office and to charity.

The married mother-of-two kept the £4.5million she earnt during her Post Office tenure, and receives £140,000 a year advising supermarket chain Morrisons and homeware retailer Dunelm.

In June last year, she was forced to step back from the Church of England's ethical investment advisory group due to the furore over the scandal.

In evidence to the Commons business committee she sought to shift the blame for the IT scandal, insisting she did not approve prosecutions of her staff and was misled by computer experts.  She was accused of treating postmasters 'with contempt and derision'. 

Lord Justice Holroyde said the Court of Appeal had concluded that, in those three cases, 'the reliability of Horizon data was not essential to the prosecution case and that the convictions are safe'. 

In the Court of Appeal's written ruling, Lord Justice Holroyde said Post Office Limited (POL) 'knew that there were problems with Horizon'.

The judge added: 'POL knew that subpostmasters around the country had complained of inexplicable discrepancies in the accounts.

'POL knew that different bugs, defects and errors had been detected well beyond anything which might be regarded as a period of initial teething problems.

'In short, POL knew that there were serious issues about the reliability of Horizon.'

Lord Justice Holroyde continued: 'Yet it does not appear that POL adequately considered or made relevant disclosure of problems with or concerns about Horizon in any of the cases at any point during that period.  

'On the contrary, it consistently asserted that Horizon was robust and reliable.

'Nor does it appear that any attempt was made to investigate the assertions of subpostmasters that there must be a problem with Horizon.

'The consistent failure of POL to be open and honest about the issues affecting Horizon can, in our view, only be explained by a strong reluctance to say or do anything which might lead to other subpostmasters knowing about those issues.'

The court's written ruling also said: 'These pervasive failures of investigation and disclosure went in each case to the very heart of the prosecution.  

'Whatever charges were brought against an individual appellant, and whatever pleas may ultimately have been accepted, the whole basis of each prosecution was that money was missing from the branch account: there was an actual shortfall, which had been caused by theft on the part of the subpostmaster, or at best had been covered up by false accounting or fraud on the part of the subpostmaster.

'But in the 'Horizon cases', there was no evidence of a shortfall other than the Horizon data.

'If the Horizon data was not reliable, there was no basis for the prosecution.

'The failures of investigation and disclosure prevented the appellants from challenging, or challenging effectively, the reliability of the data.

'In short, POL as prosecutor brought serious criminal charges against the subpostmasters on the basis of Horizon data, and by its failures to discharge its clear duties it prevented them from having a fair trial on the issue of whether that data was reliable.'  

Allowing 39 of the appeals on the grounds that those subpostmasters' prosecutions were 'an affront to the conscience of the court', Lord Justice Holroyde said: 'Throughout the period covered by these prosecutions POL's approach to investigation and disclosure was influenced by what was in the interests of POL, rather than by what the law required.' 

The judge said there was 'clear evidence of systemic failures by POL over many years', with the same failures occurring in 'case after case, year after year'.

He added: 'POL as prosecutor knew that the consequences of conviction for a subpostmaster would be, and were, severe ... many of these appellants went to prison.' 

The judge continued: 'Those that did not suffered other penalties imposed by the courts; all would have experienced the anxiety associated with what they went through; all suffered financial losses, in some cases resulting in bankruptcy; some suffered breakdowns in family relationships; some were unable to find or retain work as a result of their convictions - causing further financial and emotional burdens; some suffered breakdowns in health; all suffered the shame and humiliation of being reduced from a respected local figure to a convicted criminal; and three ... have gone to their graves carrying that burden.'

The Post Office conceded that 39 of the 42 appellants' appeals should be allowed, on the basis that 'they did not or could not have a fair trial'.

But it had opposed 35 of those 39 cases on a second ground of appeal, which is that the prosecutions were 'an affront to justice'.  

Paula Vennells: Post Office boss in postmasters scandal is willing to appear at inquiry 

Paula Vennells is said to have known that money could appear to be missing from branch accounts because of errors in the Horizon computer system

The former chief of the Post Office during the subpostmasters scandal has confirmed she is willing to appear as a witness in the inquiry into the UK's biggest miscarriage of justice.

Paula Vennells, who ran the Post Office between 2012 and 2019, said she welcomed the move to give the inquiry statutory powers to compel witnesses to appear or risk jail for non-attendance.

She said in a statement: 'It is beyond doubt there are serious and unanswered questions as to the manner in which subpostmasters were wrongly prosecuted.

'All those involved in any way have a duty to those subpostmasters and their families, who were innocent victims, to ensure that this can never happen again.' 

Mrs Vennells, an ordained priest, joined the Post Office in 2007 and was promoted to CEO in 2012. She is said to have known that money could appear to be missing from the accounts.  

Over two decades, hundreds of postmasters were bankrupted, sacked or jailed. 

After leaving the Post Office, she landed roles as an adviser to the Cabinet Office and chairman of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London. She was given a CBE in 2019 for services to the Post Office and to charity.

The married mother-of-two kept the £4.5million she earnt during her Post Office tenure, and receives £140,000 a year advising supermarket chain Morrisons and homeware retailer Dunelm.

In June last year, she was forced to step back from the Church of England's ethical investment advisory group due to the furore over the scandal.

In evidence to the Commons business committee she sought to shift the blame for the IT scandal, insisting she did not approve prosecutions of her staff and was misled by computer experts. 

She was accused of treating postmasters 'with contempt and derision'.

Ms Vennells oversaw the organisation whilst it routinely denied that there were problems with its Horizon IT system, instead accusing subpostmasters of stealing money.  

Ms Vennells, who was an associate minister in the Diocese of St Albans, announced at the time that she would also be stepping back from her regular church duties in the wake of the Horizon scandal.

She also quit non-executive board roles at high street retailers Morrisons and Dunelm.

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