The Post Office, embedded in one of the most significant miscarriages of justice in UK history, has reportedly mislaid the records of nearly 20 cases related to the prosecutions of subpostmasters in Scotland. The missing records of these 19 cases were unearthed by the Crown Office, creating a wave of fury among the subpostmasters, lawyers, and politicians in Glasgow and across the nation. The poor record management is feared to potentially obstruct the process of justice for those wrongfully convicted.
A victim of this management failure, Chris Dawson, 50, was erroneously accused of theft of £17,500 from his post office in Pitlochry back in 2010. He expressed his anger and disbelief over the lost records of these cases: “This angers me. It’s beyond belief they have no record of 19 cases they were involved in.”
That could mean there’s 19 people who haven’t had access to the justice they deserve, and to the redress, compensation they’re entitled to and know nothing of it,” he added.
This blunder came to light only a few months after the Scottish Government proclaimed in June that it would follow the path of Westminster, introducing a mass exoneration scheme for those wrongfully convicted.
Stuart Munro, head of criminal litigation at Livingston Brown, voiced his concerns about the reliability of this scheme in the light of the recent revelations. “It’s concerning that, years after this scandal became known, neither the Crown nor the Post Office is able to say how many sub-postmasters they were responsible for prosecuting.”, he said.
“Without that knowledge, those affected and the public as a whole can have no confidence in the mass exoneration scheme.”
In reply to a Freedom of Information request, the Post Office disclosed its inability to disclose the exact number of cases prosecuted in Scotland involving Horizon, the flawed computer system, due to lack of records. Throughout the UK, from 2000-2015, it’s believed that over 900 subpostmasters were wrongfully convicted due to glitches within the system. Moreover, hundreds more are thought to have been coerced into closing their businesses and repay money which they were falsely accused of stealing to evade court action.
Despite the setbacks, the Post Office maintained that Horizon, which is still in usage, isn’t flawed. However, an inquiry into this scandal revealed that the management knew about the flaws but kept them under wraps.
Queried about the number investigations conducted in Scotland, the Post Office revealed that they had identified 291 cases they “appear to have investigated between 2000 and 2015” among which 137 have been referred to the Crown Office for prosecution. However, amongst those, only 104 ended up being prosecuted. The Post Office clarified that they weren’t able to “distinguish between cases investigated for theft and false accounting and other types of offences”.
The Post Office further confessed that this included 19 cases that the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service identified as potentially having some involvement by the Post Office, but for which they held no prior record. The office admitted to their incapacity to “determine the date on which those cases were commenced, nor whether Post Office, or another investigating agency, investigated those cases.”
Amidst this crisis, the spokesperson for the Post Office assured, “We are doing all we can to help get victims answers, supporting the public inquiry and co-operating with police to try to put things right.”
Meanwhile, the justice spokespersons for Labour and Tory called for better accountability from the Post Office and demanded that Glasgow’s SNP ministers ensure detailed disclosure of the Scottish Horizon cases.
Victims, politicians, lawyers, and residents of Scotland now gear up in anticipation of how this complex situation will unfold and work towards ensuring such miscarriage of justice doesn’t replicate itself in the future.
