Victory for Mail as f irst postmasters are cleared
POSTMASTERS branded crooks saw their convictions quashed yesterday after one of Britain’s biggest miscarriages of justice.
In a victory for the Daily Mail, six ex-Post Office staff became the first victims of the Horizon IT scandal to have their sentences formally overturned.
They said the decision finally lets them ‘hold their heads high’.
Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds of postmasters were prosecuted for false accounting, fraud and theft after money appeared to go missing from their branch accounts.
Post Office bosses knew glitches in the Horizon computer terminals in branches may be to blame.
But they pursued prosecutions anyway, ruining many lives and costing taxpayers millions.
Two months ago, the Post Office confirmed it would not oppose 44 of the first 47 cases referred to the Court of Appeal. The remaining 41 cases will be heard in March.
A further 14 convictions are being considered by the Criminal Cases Review Commission and up to 900 more prosecutions are being scrutinised. Yesterday the first acquittals were passed down at London’s Southwark Crown Court.
The news marked a victory for the Daily Mail, which has repeatedly highlighted the scandal and campaigned to save village post offices.
Former Oxfordshire postmaster Vipinchandra Patel, 67, was given 18 weeks in prison after pleading guilty to a £75,000 fraud in 2011.
He said he went from being ‘a pillar of the community to a pariah’.
Mr Patel added: ‘The past nine years have been hellish, but today I feel I can start living again.’
Susan Rudkin, 65, who was given a suspended prison sentence after wrongfully being accused of stealing £44,000 in Ibstock, Leicestershire, said her acquittal was the ‘best Christmas present ever’.
She said: ‘Clearing my name has been the single most important thing in my life. Now I can hold my head high again.’
The other acquitted victims were Julie Cleife, Chris Trousdale, Kamran Ashraf and Jasvinder Barang.
The Post Office has already paid out £58million to 557 postmasters following a battle in the High Court.
But once legal fees were taken out each postmaster was entitled to just £20,000 on average.
Paula Vennells, the former Post Office boss who dragged them to court, was paid £4.5million and made a CBE in the 2019 New Year’s Honours. Last week, she was forced to resign as boss of Imperial NHS Trust in London over the scandal.
The Post Office has launched a compensation scheme. A judge-led review will start next year.
The Post Office has apologised. Yesterday it said: ‘We have taken determined action to address the past... and to prevent such events ever happening again.’