The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has decided to refer the convictions of 39 sub-postmasters for appeal following the High Court verdicts on the Horizon IT system used by the Post Office.
As the issues with the Horizon may have had an impact on the cases, each prosecution amounted to an abuse of process, the CCRC held.
The decision follows from the two judgments - the Common Issues Judgment of 15 March 2019 and particularly the Horizon Issues Judgment handed down on 16 December 2019 - in a case brought out by 557 current and former sub-postmasters against Post Office.
In the Horizon Issues judgement, Justice Fraser of the High Court found the Legacy Horizon, which was in use between 2000 and 2010, as "not robust.” The judge went on to say that the Post Office knew about the issues of Legacy Horizon, but chose not to investigate, despite reaching the conclusion by itself that the system was ‘not fit for purpose’.
Helen Pitcher, chairman of the CCRC, said: “This is by some distance the largest number of cases we will ever have referred for appeal at one time. Our team has got through a huge amount of work, particularly since the judgment in December, in order to identify the grounds on which we are referring these cases.”
CCRC has received a total of 61 applications from sub-postmasters, with 27 of them arriving after the Horizon Issues Judgment. The Commission said it has further work to do before announcing decisions on the remaining applications.
The referred cases include that of Seema Misra, a sub-postmistress who was jailed for theft in 2010 while pregnant with her second child.
