The Crown Office of Scotland is under fire for its involvement in the wrongful prosecution of sub-postmasters during the Horizon scandal. Over 700 sub-postmasters were falsely accused of embezzlement due to flawed software. Concerns with the software were brought to prosecutors’ attention in 2013, yet they continued pursuing cases until 2015. Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC might be questioned by the Scottish Parliament to clarify why she did not disclose the concerns earlier. Up to 100 people in Scotland could have been wrongly accused while working as Post Office branch managers.
Late last week, it was confirmed that two more Scottish sub-postmasters, Judith Smith and Colin Smith, had their convictions overturned, bringing the total number in Scotland to four. Ms. Smith had pleaded guilty to fraud in 2009 and was admonished at Selkirk Sheriff Court. Her case, among others, was identified later as potentially being a wrongful conviction by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission.
More than 90 convictions have been quashed throughout the UK, and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced plans to introduce a new law to quash convictions in England and Wales last week. First Minister Humza Yousaf also pledged that victims in Scotland of this scandal will have their convictions overturned. He aims to use a legislative consent motion to extend this new law to Scotland.
Mr. Yousaf stated that the COPFS was informed of the issues with Horizon in 2013. However, Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross argued that prosecutors were advised of the issue on January 29 of that year and instructed to halt cases that relied on the accounts derived from the faulty software by tech giant Fujitsu. In reaction to this scandal, Labour leader Anas Sarwar called it a “national disgrace,” to which Mr. Yousaf responded that “sub-postmasters should not have to wait any longer for justice.”
The Horizon scandal, which has been widely known for years, gained public attention again through the recent ITV drama Mr. Bates vs The Post Office. However, a leading lawyer representing 180 sub-postmasters affected by the scandal warned that Scotland was moving too slowly with identifying its victims. David Enright, a Howe and Co solicitor made this point on BBC Radio Scotland, stating that Scotland was lagging well behind other parts of the UK in this matter
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