Two former Post Office workers from Shropshire cleared of theft and fraud by Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal ruled that the convictions were unsafe because they had been based on flawed evidence from the now-discredited Horizon system which was installed in branches during 1999.

The Post Office prosecuted more than 700 sub-postmasters between 2000 and 2014 after a bug in the Horizon electronic point of sale and accounting system led to financial shortfalls in branch accounts.

Their convictions were referred to the court by the Criminal Cases Review Commission last year following a landmark High Court case against the Post Office.

Announcing the court’s ruling, Lord Justice Holroyde said the Post Office “knew there were serious issues about the reliability of Horizon” and had a “clear duty to investigate” the system’s defects.

But the Post Office “consistently asserted that Horizon was robust and reliable” and “effectively steamrolled over any subpostmaster who sought to challenge its accuracy”, the judge added.

Rubbina Shaheen from Worthen and Tracy Felstead from Telford were amongst those convicted.

Rubbina was jailed in 2010 for 12 months for false accounting. Having originally been charged with the theft of £40,000 at Greenfield Post Office, the Post Office agreed to drop the charge if she pleaded guilty to false accounting. Mrs Shaheen and her husband were forced to sell their home and live in a van. She served three months of her sentence.

Tracey was a counter assistant working in London and was 18-years-old when she was accused of stealing £11,500 from the Post Office. The charge was denied, but she was convicted in 2001 and jailed for six months.

Post Office apologises

The Post Office today said it sincerely apologised for serious failures in its historical conduct of prosecutions of postmasters, resulting in the Court of Appeal formally overturning convictions - that occurred between 2003 to 2013 - in uncontested appeals.

Post Office Chairman Tim Parker said:

“The Post Office is extremely sorry for the impact on the lives of these postmasters and their families that was caused by historical failures.

“Post Office stopped prosecutions soon after its separation from Royal Mail a decade ago and has throughout this appeals process supported the overturning of the vast majority of convictions.

“We are contacting other postmasters and Post Office workers with criminal convictions from past private Post Office prosecutions that may be affected, to assist them to appeal should they wish. Post Office continues to reform its operations and culture to ensure such events can never happen again.

“The full ruling by the Court of Appeal judges published today is detailed, therefore Post Office will assess the Judgment carefully to understand what further action may be required.”

Post Office Chief Executive, Nick Read said:

“I am in no doubt about the human cost of the Post Office’s past failures and the deep pain that has been caused to people affected.

“Many of those postmasters involved have been fighting for justice for a considerable length of time and sadly there are some who are not here to see the outcome today and whose families have taken forward appeals in their memory. I am very moved by their courage.

“The quashing of historical convictions is a vital milestone in fully and properly addressing the past as I work to put right these wrongs as swiftly as possible and there must be compensation that reflects what has happened.

“In addition, since arriving at the Post Office 18 months ago, my focus has been on resetting the culture at the Post Office and forging a substantive partnership with our postmasters. We are determined that they must come first in everything we do because without them there is no Post Office. We must transform the Post Office so that it can continue to provide essential services in local communities across the UK.”