The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is currently reviewing 15 subpostmaster criminal convictions that could have been based on evidence from the Post Office’s Capture software, which pre-dated the controversial Horizon system.
This is in addition to two cases where it has already identified Capture as a factor in the convictions.
In November 2024, the CCRC said it had five cases under review where the Capture IT system could be a factor, and that it was seeking further information on eight more cases. Meanwhile, former Capture users have been invited to meet government later this month to discuss progress on a compensation scheme for those wrongly blamed for shortfalls in their branches.
The CCRC reviews and the planned compensation scheme followed an investigation by forensic investigators Kroll, which identified there was a “reasonable likelihood” that Post Office Capture software caused accounting losses that subpostmasters were blamed and punished for.
A CCRC spokesperson said: “We have considered the cases included in the recent Kroll report and are reviewing two of these where there were criminal convictions in England and Wales in which Capture appears to have been a factor. We are currently reviewing a further 15 cases to determine whether Capture played a part in the convictions.”
The CCRC said it is liaising with the department of business and trade (DBT) and the Post Office to identify other cases in which Capture could have played a part. “The Post Office has indicated it has records of convictions and prosecutions from the period, and ministers have asked it to review the records and send them to the CCRC.”
The CCRC added that it faces particular challenges, partly due to “the scant documentation that remains available”, but added that “we would encourage anyone who believes that their criminal conviction, or that of a relative, might have been affected by the Capture system to make contact with us”.
There are many more affected who were not convicted of crimes but had their lives ruined after being blamed by the Post Office for unexplained losses.
Post Office Capture system users, including those convicted of crimes, have been invited to a meeting with the DBT to “discuss the progress that has been made since we last met to discuss the government response to the [Kroll] report into the Post Office Capture software”.
On 27 February, the DBT will give them an update on its investigation into the Capture system and the creation of schemes to compensate former users.
“We have recognised Capture could have created shortfalls affecting subpostmasters,” said a DBT spokesperson. “We are working with subpostmasters who suffered losses as a result of Capture and are gathering information to design a redress process.”
Subpostmasters wrongly blamed
The Capture controversy is part of the wider Post Office scandal, which was exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009 and involved thousands of subpostmasters being wrongly blamed and even prosecuted for unexplained accounting shortfalls caused by the error-prone Horizon IT system.
In January this year, then MP Kevan Jones, who now sits in the House of Lords, highlighted evidence of injustices caused by the Capture computer system used in Post Office branches prior to the introduction of Horizon. This followed former subpostmasters coming forward after watching the Post Office scandal dramatisation and documentary on ITV, with stories of the problems they had using the Capture system and the severe detriment they suffered. Jones had visited a subpostmaster who he thought may be a victim of Horizon, but when he realised the dates involved it became clear another system could be at fault.
In May 2024, the government introduced legislation to exonerate about 900 former Horizon users who were convicted based on evidence from Fujitsu’s faulty system.
Capture was a PC-based application developed by the Post Office and uploaded onto a personal computer to carry out branch accounts. The software – referred to by some users as a “glorified spreadsheet” – was a standalone system, unlike Horizon, which is a complex, networked system connected to centralised services.
In October 2024, the government was urged by the influential Horizon Compensation Advisory Board to introduce legislation to exonerate the convictions of former Capture users, but a government spokesperson said: “The Post Office Offences Act 2024 was a truly exceptional response to unprecedented circumstances where hundreds of convictions based on evidence from the Horizon system were considered to be unsafe.”??
“The Criminal Cases Review Commission is looking into a small number of convictions which may be based on evidence from the Capture computer system. If they consider that there is a real possibility that these convictions are unsafe, they will be referred to the Court of Appeal.”
The Post Office scandal was first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009, revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffered due to Horizon accounting software, which led to the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history (see below timeline of Computer Weekly articles about the scandal since 2009).
Also read: What you need to know about the Horizon scandal
Also watch: ITV’s documentary – Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The real story
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