CPS prosecuted postmasters under Starmer
Some of the Post Office Horizon miscarriages of justice were while Labour leader was top prosecutor
‘I wasn’t aware of any of them. I think it was a small number within a 20-year window. That’s all I know’
‘Starmer needs to own his own failure on this and, at the very least, apologise for the hurt caused on his watch’
SUB-POSTMASTERS were taken to court by the Crown Prosecution Service while Sir Keir Starmer was in charge, it emerged yesterday.
The CPS said it was involved in 11 cases in which it brought prosecutions against sub-postmasters for fraud, theft and false accounting involving the Horizon IT system.
Out of those it had found so far, three had resulted in convictions during the time that Sir Keir, who is now the Labour Party leader, was the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). In one prosecution, in May 2009, a sub-postmaster was given an eight-month suspended jail term and 180 hours of community service after pleading guilty to theft and fraud.
In another case to come to light on Sir Keir’s watch as DPP, Joanne Cropper, who worked at a branch in Westwood Park, Eccles, Greater Manchester, was handed a six-month community order and curfew in February 2012 after pleading guilty to theft.
The cases will intensify criticism of Sir Keir, who presided over the CPS at the time.
Doubts about the Horizon system, which proved to be defective resulting in the greatest miscarriage of justice in British legal history, had first been raised in 2009 in an investigation conducted by Computer Weekly magazine. Yesterday, Sir Keir insisted he was unaware of the cases, which he said had not crossed his desk during his time running the CPS.
Pressed on how many he had known about, he told reporters: “I wasn’t aware of any of them. I think it was a small number within a 20-year window, that’s all I know.”
Asked again, he said: “I don’t even know – but I guess, I think, the CPS are helping with inquiries – how many of those may or may not have involved Horizon. That’s my only response to that, I’m afraid.”
Sir Keir faced pressure to clarify his role and even apologise to victims of the scandal last night. Greg Smith, the Tory MP for Buckingham, said: “Starmer can’t showboat on Horizon on one hand, whilst knowing all along he was Director of Public Prosecutions at the time some cases were prosecuted. “He needs to own his own failure on this and, at the very least, apologise for the hurt caused by the false prosecutions on his watch.”
Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader who earlier this week was among the first to raise the question of Sir Keir’s involvement, said: “Starmer avoided the Post Office scandal at Prime Minister’s Questions today. He becomes more deeply implicated every day.”
The rules on private prosecutions state that “there will be instances where it is appropriate for the CPS to exercise” the powers that the DPP has “either to continue the prosecution or to discontinue or stop it”.
Sir Keir has previously insisted that the powers of prosecution given to the Post Office should be removed. The CPS has pointed out that the vast majority of prosecutions were conducted privately by the Post Office. A spokesman for Sir Keir said: “During Keir’s time as chief prosecutor, no cases relating to Horizon were brought to his desk ... the scandal that has emerged is one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history and Labour has been calling for swift exoneration and compensation for the victims. It’s vital that all action is taken to right these wrongs.
“Labour’s focus is on playing our part in making sure this injustice is never repeated.”
Party sources insisted hundreds of thousands of cases came through the CPS each year before questioning how many of the cases highlighted by the service were linked to the Horizon scandal.
Sources close to Sir Keir have remained adamant that the Labour leader, who opinion polls suggest is likely to be the next prime minister, has no case to answer.