Two former sub-postmasters today (14 May) had their criminal convictions relating to the Post Office Horizon scandal quashed.
Southwark Crown Court formally acquitted Oyeteju Adedayo and Parmod Kalia, referred by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), in uncontested appeals. The cases, from 2001 and 2006, were referred to the Court in January and relate to convictions in Magistrates’ Courts in which Post Office acted as prosecutor.
The latest development has taken the number of sub-postmasters who had their Horizon convictions quashed by the courts to 47. Six former postmasters were formally acquitted in uncontested appeals at Southwark Crown Court in December last year, and last month, the Court of Appeal has quashed 39 convictions.
Post Office last week announced it is contacting a further 540 former workers potentially convicted using flawed financial computer evidence.
Speaking after today’s hearing at Southwark Crown Court, Adedayo said she and her family had been ‘to hell and back’ over the past 15 years, ‘living with the shame’ of her conviction for stealing £50,000 from the community Post Office she ran in Kent.
She was handed a 50-week sentence back in 2006, suspended for two years, and ordered to complete 200 hours under a community punishment order for false accounting and theft.
Adedayo and her husband were forced to remortgage their family home to raise funds and repay the ‘missing’ £50,000, and she was left unable to find new work due to her criminal record.
“My family have been dragged to hell and back as a result of all this, so today is a very good day,” she said. “I’ve been completely broken by this, particularly by how this has impacted on my family and the unbearable shame it has brought on us all, me being convicted of such crimes.”
“I feel I can now finally look to move on from this. It has been so cruel to destroy the lives of so many people, not just us, but our families, our husbands, wives and children. It has all been so cruel.”
Parmod Kalia had to spend three months in jail for a crime that has been quashed today. He has kept his conviction and sentence secret from the many of his family – including his mother – for the past 19 years, such his feeling of ‘shame and embarrassment’.
The father-of-four was accused of stealing £22,000 from the Post Office he’d run in Kent for 11 years.
“The only reason I ever said I had taken the money is because I was told that was my only option to avoid jail. I was told I needed to repay the money and make up a story as to where the £22,000 had gone,” he said.
“I was in a complete panic and so I made up a story. It was stupid, but I was under such intense pressure and I was desperate to avoid prison. Even then I was sent to jail. The whole experience was just appalling.
The emotional, mental and physical stress led Kalia to attempt suicide on three occasions, and he has been scarred with physical disabilities
“I have thought about ending it all on many occasions. The shame has always been linked to me and I have always worried about how that impacted on our three children, who were all very young at the time. They have seen how it has destroyed our lives, and although it was never my fault, I have always felt ashamed that they had to go through all of this,” he said.
“I will never understand why this happened to us and why we have had to fight so long.”
The two cases were initially rejected by the CCRC, but, following further submissions from their legal representatives at Hudgell Solicitors and Doughty Street Chambers, their cases were finally referred for consideration and not opposed by the Post Office ahead of the hearing.
Solicitor Neil Hudgell, of Hudgell Solicitors said: “I’ve been delighted for each and every person who has had their convictions overturned so far, and especially today for Parmod and Oyeteju. They have had to retain the belief that their names would be cleared in the end, even though at times it seemed as though everything was going against them.”
Following the Court of Appeal ruling last month Hudgell, who has now helped 34 former sub-postmasters clear their names, has revealed that they have launched 51 new appeals challenging convictions in the Post Office Horizon cases.
Responding to the court hearing today, a Post Office spokesman said: “Post Office sincerely is extremely sorry for historical failures and the impact these have had on the lives of people affected. We are taking determined action to fully address the past and have undertaken wholesale reforms to prevent such events ever happening again.”
