Post Office scandal: Former minister calls for mass appeal against convictions

Hundreds of sub-postmasters convicted in the Post Office Horizon scandal should be able to submit a mass appeal, a former cabinet minister has said.

Sir David Davis, who is seeking to question ministers about the scandal, told the BBC there was “no real reason” why there could not be a “mass case”.

Ministers are to meet to consider possible ways of clearing the names of hundreds of convicted sub-postmasters.

The PM has told the BBC the government is reviewing options to help victims.

The scandal led to more than 700 branch managers being convicted of false accounting, theft and fraud, based on faulty software.

Some sub-postmasters wrongfully went to prison, many were financially ruined. Some have since died.

While the scandal has been public knowledge for some time, an ITV drama which aired last week has thrust the issue back into the spotlight.

Speaking to the Today programme, Sir David Davis said the drama had galvanised the response to the scandal. “There are now tens of millions of people who care about this – care a lot. They’re furious in many cases.”

He added: “All of the cases depend on one single lie, and that is nobody but the postmasters and mistresses could access their computers. We now know that to be untrue. I see no real reason, no logical reason you can’t have a mass case, mass appeal on that basis.”

Sir David and Labour MP Kevan Jones are among those hoping to secure the chance to scrutinise a minister in the House of Commons, which is reassembling on Monday for the first time since Christmas recess.

The Post Office – which is wholly owned by the government – acted as the prosecutor when it brought the cases against its sub-postmasters between 1999 and 2015.

A petition calling for the former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells to lose her CBE over the scandal has received more than one million signatures. Ms Vennells has been contacted for comment on the petition.

Both Tracy Felstead and Janet Skinner were sub-postmistresses who were jailed in connection with the Post Office Horizon scandal. They told BBC Breakfast that Ms Vennells should hand back her CBE.

“To be fair, and if she had any decency she would just hand it back,” Ms Skinner said.

Ms Felstead said she would like to see “someone held accountable”.

“We were classed as criminals by the Post Office,” she said. “Now it is their turn to be investigated and find out who knew what, why and when this all happened. Someone needs to be held accountable for everybody.”

Many victims of the scandal are still fighting to have their convictions overturned or to secure full compensation after being forced to pay out thousands of pounds of their own money for shortfalls that were caused by Horizon accounting software.

It has been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history, but to date, fewer than 100 people have had their convictions quashed.

The board overseeing compensation has called for all Post Office staff wrongly accused of theft and false accounting to have their convictions overturned.

Prof Chris Hodges, the chair of the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board, told the Today programme that “a civilised state should overturn these convictions and deliver compensation with people having to do as little as possible”.

Some have argued that overturning all the convictions could encroach upon the independence of the judiciary, but Prof Hodges said while that was a consideration he did not think it was important in these circumstances.

“This is not a situation in which anyone would complain that the government is breaching anyone’s human rights,” he said.

Prof Hodges added that he would be “very surprised” if the judiciary “weren’t as angry and indeed embarrassed about the situation as we all are, so I don’t think that there is a constitutional issue behind here that actually stands up”.

However, former sub-postmistress Ms Felstead told the BBC that while the process of helping former sub-postmasters needs to be sped up, she cautioned against a mass exoneration.

“I think we need to be really careful that we’re not just going to go and turn everybody’s convictions over just in case you have that one person that has committed a crime and you’ve just turned over their conviction,” she said.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the BBC on Sunday it was “right that we find every which way we can do to try to make this right for the people who were so wrongfully treated at the time”.

As a result of renewed anger and headlines following the ITV mini-series – Mr Bates vs the Post Office – a meeting between Justice Secretary Alex Chalk and the Minister for the Post Office, Kevin Hollinrake, has been brought forward by a week.

On Monday, Mr Chalk and Mr Hollinrake will talk to government lawyers to explore mechanisms to lawfully attempt to speed up the process.

The prime minister said on Sunday the government was reviewing options including stripping the Post Office of its role in the appeal process.

There has been concern within government that the quashing of convictions and getting compensation to those who were victims of a miscarriage of justice has been far too slow.

To date, 93 convictions have been overturned and, of those, only 30 people have agreed “full and final settlements”.

Meanwhile, 54 cases have resulted in either a conviction being upheld, people being refused permission to appeal, or the person appealing having withdrawn from the process, according to the Post Office.

The Post Office had the power to decide on bringing the original prosecutions, and its appointed lawyers presented the evidence in court. But one option now would be for the Crown Prosecution Service and its own lawyers to step in as appeals continue to be heard.

Currently, a public inquiry into the scandal is ongoing and the Metropolitan Police is investigating the Post Office over potential fraud offences arising from the prosecutions.

A Post Office spokesperson has previously said it shares the “aims of the public inquiry to get to the truth of what went wrong in the past and establish accountability”.