Amid the ongoing Horizon scandal involving the Post Office, there is a new demand to overturn all convictions of over 700 Post Office managers, who were wrongly accused of theft and false accounting due to faulty accounting software. The board overseeing compensation related to the scandal has opined that a successful overturn of all the convictions is necessary to put the scandal behind. The UK’s largest miscarriage of justice, the Horizon scandal resulted in some of the wrongly convicted being sent to jail. The situation financially ruined many people, and some of the wrongly accused have already passed away.
Though the government has promised to provide £600,000 in compensation to the staff who have had their false accounting and theft convictions overturned, those who have come forward number only 93, according to the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board. The Chair of the board, Prof Chris Hodges believes there were over 900 prosecutions in relation to the faulty Horizon software and that the present approach is not working. The reasons for this include evidence being destroyed or lost, compensation issues, and people being unwilling to appeal due to mistrust of authority.
According to Professor Hodges, the only solution is to overturn all of the 900 Post Office driven convictions from the Horizon period. He noted, “A small minority of these people were doubtless genuinely guilty of something. However, we believe it would be worth acquitting a few guilty people (who have already been punished) in order to deliver justice to the majority – which would not otherwise happen.” In addition to the demand for overturning the convictions, the board accused the Post Office of having an egregious systemic behavior in interviews and pursuing prosecutions. Legal advice to victims to minimize sentences and psychological pressure of dealing with institutions where truth and fairness were ignored led to guilty pleas and false confessions.
Criminal barrister Flora Page fears that although the recommendation to acquit everyone involved would be significant, delivering it may be difficult as some appeals have already been refused by courts. Though Post Office has extended its support to people who believe they were wrongly convicted, according to the spokesperson, the final decision on whether to appeal would be an individual’s choice
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