First convictions linked to Post Office Capture software referred for appeal

The first convictions based on the Post Office Capture accounting software, which the organisation used before the faulty Horizon system, have been referred to the Court of Appeal.

The case of Patricia Owen, who was found guilty of five counts of theft in June 1998, had been lined up to be referred in July and the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) confirmed the referral on Thursday.

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.

She received a sentence of six months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years.

The CCRC said it is up to the Court of Appeal whether her convictions are unsafe and should be quashed.

The case is being sent to the Court of Appeal posthumously following an application by Mrs Owen’s family after she died in 2003.

Mrs Owen’s legal team stood down an independent IT specialist on the day of her trial despite Adrian Montagu’s report concluding that “bugs and errors existed in sufficiently significant numbers and seriousness” and that any evidence relying on the system “must be regarded as very unsafe”.

Dame Vera Baird KC, chairwoman of the CCRC, said: “We have more than 30 applications to refer Post Office convictions which pre-date 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.”

The CCRC said it had so far received 34 pre-Horizon applications but four cases were determined not to “raise a real possibility that the conviction would be overturned”.

The Capture system pre-dated the now infamous Horizon software, which has been responsible for around 1,000 wrongful convictions.

An independent report into Capture was commissioned last year after subpostmasters said they had suffered similar problems to those faced by the Horizon victims.

Following the confirmed referral, a Post Office spokesman said: “We continue to fully co-operate with the CCRC by supplying documents and information, where this is available, that has been requested in relation to pre-Horizon convictions.

“Whilst we can’t comment on individual cases, we continue to support the CCRC in dealing with pre-Horizon convictions.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Business and Trade said: “We’re sorry to hear about the ordeal Patricia and her family have been through, and we are pleased this case has been referred to the Court of Appeal.

“We have recognised Capture could have created shortfalls affecting postmasters and have been working with postmasters who suffered losses to help us design a redress process, as well as supporting the Criminal Cases Review Commission in their review of cases.”