Post Office had case thrown out over ‘potential errors’

The Post Office had a High Court case against a sub-postmistress thrown out because of missing evidence and potential “errors” in its accounting practices that were present years before the Horizon scandal emerged, i can reveal.

In 2003, the Court of Appeal overturned a claim by the Post Office for about £4,300 that was allegedly missing from Tarla Mahida’s branch in Lane End, Buckinghamshire.

Mrs Mahida, who died in 2016, was suspended and sacked in 1994 when the Post Office claimed she overstated the number of pension dockets she had sent off for reimbursement.

She always insisted she was innocent. The case closely mirrors claims made by a number of former subpostmasters who believe they experienced unexplained shortfalls while using Capture, a piece of accounting software rolled out in 1992.

Mrs Mahida (inset, middle) was interviewed by Post Office investigators at a police station but was eventually pursued in the civil courts.

The Post Office successfully sued her in the County Court, where she was forced to represent herself, but she was granted permission to appeal.

At the Court of Appeal in 2003, Lady Justice Hale, who went on to became the most senior judge in the country, overturned the decision and said the Post Office had been unable to produce any of the original documentation to support its case.

She also noted that Mrs Mahida’s barrister, Julian Kenny KC, argued there “might be all sorts of errors and omissions” in the Post Office’s accounting that were not able to be challenged.

Despite the victory, Mrs Mahida’s daughter, Chintan, said she “lost everything” at the hands of the Post

Kevan Jones, a Labour MP who has supported Horizon victims, called on the Government to widen the terms of reference of the inquiry.

Office and remained “bitter” about her experience with the justice system for the rest of her life.

“She wasn’t bothered about the money, she was more concerned about her good name,” Ms Mahida added.

The Post Office rolled out Capture despite IT bosses being aware that the system was prone to faults and glitches that could lead to accounting errors. The High Court ruling was referred to at the public inquiry yesterday during the questioning of Post Office former chief operating officer David Miller. However, Ms Mahida would now like her mother’s case to be explored in full along with Capture cases at the inquiry.

A spokesman for the Post Office said: “We are grateful to i for sharing details of this case and we urge Ms Mahida to get in touch and if possible share any additional information or documents from the time her mother was a postmistress so we can look into this further.”