Post Office Capture appeals slowed by poor records
Poor data on the use of the Post Office Capture software is slowing the review of criminal convictions, says lawyer
The review of criminal convictions based on data from Post Office Capture software is slow, as a lack of records makes it difficult for appellants to prove they used the software.
While the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has now accepted that the Capture software could have caused unexplained shortfalls, former subpostmasters seeking to clear their names must find evidence that they used the software from the 1990s.
This is a challenge due to the passing of over 30 years and a lack of records. Rupert Lloyd Thomas, a veteran of the Post Office who joined the organisation in 1974 and left in the early 2000s, has been helping Capture victims find evidence, which he said is proving to be “bloody difficult”. The campaigner played a key role in finding evidence of problems with the Capture system, which was used by an estimated 200 Post Office branches in the 1990s.
The Capture system, which predates Fujitsu’s Horizon system, was used in Post Office branches in the 1990s to replace paper-based accounting. As with the controversial Horizon system at the centre of the Post Office scandal, which saw subpostmasters blamed for unexplained losses, some users of Capture were prosecuted for financial crimes.
The controversy over the Capture system emerged in January 2024 after ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office told the stories of subpostmasters who had suffered at the hands of the Horizon system.
It was the same month that Kevan Jones, an MP at the time who now sits in the House of Lords, highlighted evidence of injustices triggered by Capture losses.
Triggered by Horizon drama
This ignited a campaign and, by December, the government promised financial redress and justice for subpostmasters affected by Capture problems. This followed an independent investigation by forensic experts at Kroll, which found there was a “reasonable likelihood” the Post Office Capture software had caused accounting losses.
According to the CCRC, it has received 34 applications from former subpostmasters. One has so far been referred to the Court of Appeal, and one referral has been refused, with the remaining 32 under review.
In May 2024, the government was forced to introduce legislation to exonerate more than 900 subpostmasters who had been convicted based on data from the faulty Horizon system.
Solicitor Neil Hudgell of Hudgell Solicitors, which represents many of the appellants, said finding proof of the use of Capture after so many years is difficult.
“We are pretty confident we have established that Capture could suffer bugs, errors and defects. We now have to establish that the subpostmasters used Capture,” he said.
“It is vital that the Post Office provide any information they have on that. In the absence of any documentation, the subpostmasters should be given the benefit of doubt,” added Hudgell.
A Post Office spokesperson said: “We continue to fully cooperate with the CCRC by supplying documents and information, where this is available, that has been requested in relation to pre-Horizon convictions.”
In July, the appeal made by the family of Patricia Owens, who died in 2003, became the first case to be sent to the Court of Appeal by the CCRC.
Evidence is out there
Lloyd Thomas said he has trawled newspaper articles, the Postal Museum and “dug up” former colleagues in his efforts to compile a list of Post Office branches that used Capture.
“I wouldn’t trust the Post Office to find the evidence of who used Capture, but those who look will find there is evidence out there,” he said.
A CCRC spokesperson said: “We do not publicise operational detail about investigations and are bound by legal limitation on what can be shared publicly from case reviews by the Criminal Appeal Act 1995.
“However, we will look at every case individually, on its own merits, and will seek the necessary evidence to establish whether there is a real possibility the appeal court will overturn the conviction in each case.”
Former subpostmaster Steve Marston, who was convicted in 1996, is currently going through the appeal process. His case is one of the 32 being reviewed. He said it was the Post Office, from its records, that proved he used Capture.
Marston, who was a subpostmaster in Bury, Lancashire, was prosecuted in 1996 for theft and false accounting, following an unexplained shortfall of nearly £80,000. He said he had never had any problems using the paper-based accounting system, but that changed when his branch, which he ran from 1973, began using the Capture system.
He told Computer Weekly that the slow process of appeal is difficult for people who have waited years. “We’re all sick of having to wait for it to get sorted. I mean, at the end of the day, the capture programme has been proven to be faulty.”
Read everything you need to know about the Post Office scandal, which was first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009.
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