The first convictions of a former sub-postmaster for theft based on evidence from another Post Office IT system used before the Horizon accounting system have been sent to the Court of Appeal.
The conviction of former sub-postmistress Patricia Owen for theft in 1998 was based on evidence from Capture, an IT system used before the now-disgraced Horizon software.
The Capture software was widely used in Post Office branches in the 1990s, years before Horizon came into the picture.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has today confirmed that Mrs Owens’ case, which saw her convicted on five counts of theft, has been referred to the Court of Appeal on the grounds her prosecution was an abuse of process.
Mrs Owen pleaded not guilty to all five charges after the Broad Oak Post Office branch in Sweechgate, Canterbury, was left with a shortfall of £6,000.
Sadly Mrs Owen died in April 2003, and the application to the CCRC was made by her family members in January 2024.
The conviction of former sub-postmistress Patricia Owen for theft in 1998 was based on evidence from Capture, an IT system used before the now-disgraced Horizon software – it has now been sent to the Court of Appeal
The CCRC says it has received 34 applications from the families of sub-postmasters who were convicted of stealing from their businesses before the Horizon accounting software was ever used.
Four of these cases were determined by a committee of three Commissioners not to raise a real possibility that the conviction would be overturned, but the other 29 remain under review.
Mrs Owens’ case is the first to be sent to the Court of Appeal to assess whether her conviction was unsafe and should therefore be quashed.
Dame Vera Baird KC, Chair of the CCRC, said: ‘We have more than 30 applications to refer Post Office convictions which predate Horizon and most of these cases are under active investigation. In some of these very old cases, there is a dearth of paperwork, dates or other information.
‘We have exercised our powers under section 17 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 to require the Post Office to produce all the material they have, in each case and they will provide it where it is available.’
More than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 because of faults with Horizon.
Glitches in the system meant money looked as if it was missing from branch accounts even though it was not.
The shocking miscarriage of justice was hauled back into the spotlight in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office – but a fierce debate over compensation for those affected continues to rage to this day.
The popularity of the series also led to fellow sub-postmasters recognising similarities between the Horizon and Capture systems, and fearing they too could have been wrongly convicted in a court of law.
One such man was Steve Marston, 68, who pleaded guilty to theft and false accounting after shortfalls of £79,000 were identified at his branch in Greater Manchester in 1998.
He now believes that he was wrongly convicted due to errors caused by Capture.
He met previously with Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake and his lawyer, who is representing more than 30 people convicted over alleged Capture accounting errors.
This is a breaking news story and is being updated.
