‘Public exoneration’ 17 years on
Conviction overturned in Post Office scandal
A Sub-postmaster who was prosecuted during the Post Office Horizon scandal has had her conviction quashed.
Gillian Harrison, then of Oakamoor, was forced to sell Dresden Post Office after she was sentenced for false accounting 17 years ago.
The 69-year-old has now been cleared of four charges of fraud by false accounting at an unopposed appeal hearing at Southwark Crown Court.
Mrs Harrison was among hundreds of people who ran Post Office branches who were convicted of various offences based on evidence from the faulty IT system used by the Post Office from 2000.
In 2005, while living in the Moorlands, Mrs Harrison was convicted over an alleged cash shortfall of £1,474 at her post office in Dresden.
She was sentenced to a 12-month rehabilitation order and ordered to pay the missing money back as compensation, plus £320 costs.
At the time, North Staffordshire Magistrates’ Court heard Mrs Harrison, who had worked for the Post Office for 20 years, misleadingly balanced the books to cover up a total of £1,475 which had gone missing from her post office’s cash account. She always denied taking any money.
After Mrs Harrison was sentenced, she said: “As a result of this case I have lost a £50,000-a-year job and I will have to sell my post office for next to nothing.”
The appeal hearing finally saw Mrs Harrison cleared of any wrongdoing. Judge Deborah Taylor said: “The court will allow the appeal. The conviction is quashed.
“Mrs Harrison has been of good character throughout. It is a recognition and a public exoneration of you.”
Mrs Harrison, who was supported by loved ones in the public gallery, burst into tears following the judgement which also saw Richard Ormerod, 79, of County Durham, acquitted of three charges of fraud by false accounting.
She said the ordeal had ‘destroyed’ her life and those of her family, but that she now wants to look to the future and encourage others who were wrongly convicted to get justice. “I think the Post Office is diseased and it needs eradicating,” she said. “I just want people to come forward. It is important.” Simon Baker QC, representing the Post Office, said: “Both are cases in which the convictions were predicated upon the Horizon computer system with which the court is now familiar. In both cases the Post Office does not oppose these appeals.”
The convictions are the latest to be overturned after former sub-postmasters who were convicted and even jailed for theft, fraud and false accounting had their names cleared in April last year – some after fighting for nearly 20 years.
Solicitor Neil Hudgell, of Hudgell Solicitors, the firm representing a total of 62 people who have now had their convictions quashed, said: “Every case relates to lives ruined by the Post Office. Every sub-postmaster affected deserves their day in court to have their names and reputations cleared, but they also deserve so much more.” A Post Office spokesman said: “We are sincerely sorry for the impact of historical failures on the lives of the people affected.”
I think the Post Office is diseased and it needs eradicating. I just want people to come forward. Gillian Harrison