Hats off to the Daily Mail who appear to have got one of the biggest scoops of this extraordinary story so far. The Post Office has set up a review of “around” 500 of its successful prosecutions OUTSIDE those already lodged with the Criminal Cases Review Commisision.
500! That is criminalisation on industrial scale.
The 39 cases (of the 61 under review) already referred to the Court of Appeal by the CCRC make this one of the widest potential miscarriages of justice in the UK this century. If even 10% of the Post Office’s 500 other convictions are unsafe, all bets are off.
Numberwang
Totting up the figures which are publicly available, we know that between 2004/5 and 2016/17 the Post Office prosecuted 252 people. Assuming there have been negligible prosecutions since then (and I’ve asked for the numbers via FOI), and knowing that not all those prosecutions resulted in convictions, that means between 1999 and 2003/4, the Post Office not just prosecuted but successfully convicted at least 250 people over a four year period.
Wow.
If you have a criminal conviction after a prosecution brought by the Post Office and your case isn’t with the CCRC, please get in touch.
Scot free
You’ll be pleased to know that despite the tens of millions of pounds blown by the Post Office at the High Court, and despite the Post Office denying problems with Horizon, misleading MPs, journalists, the courts and Subpostmasters alike, the government is pretty clear no one should be held responsible.
A serving Subpostmaster recently wrote to the ministry of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (which “owns” the Post Office on our behalf) with a number of concerns. He received a lengthy reply on 2 April from a lady called Lauren Wood at the BEIS Ministerial Correspondence Unit. In it she said:
“With regard to the point you raise about taking action against former directors, given the major programme of work the Post Office is implementing, the Government will not be taking further action at this time. The Horizon IT system was put in place in 1999, with the first issues being raised by postmasters in the early 2000s. Over an almost 20-year period decisions were made by many people, including in relation to the prosecution of postmasters. There is therefore no single person accountable for what has taken place. The Post Office must learn from Mr Justice Fraser’s findings and deliver the commitments it made as part of the final settlement, to strengthen and repair its relationship with postmasters. Minister Scully will ensure that the Post Office is accountable for delivering this work.”
I am not sure the “oh it was all a long time ago and lots of people were involved” approach is morally legitimate, but it seems to be the strategy du jour.
My request for investigations unit stories
Thank you so much to everyone who has replied already about their experiences at the hands of the Post Office’s investigations unit. It sounds like many of PO’s finest model themselves on DCI Gene Hunt, without the wit. There will be more on this soon, I hope.
Have a great Easter.
Nick