Post Office Horizon scandal: Two more sub-postmasters' convictions quashed

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption, The faulty Horizon software was used by branches of the Post Office for several years
At a glance
  • Two sub-postmasters have had their convictions quashed at the Court of Appeal
  • Judges heard how Sheila Coultas, from Stamford, and Victor Ingham, of Anglesey, had previously been convicted on false accounting charges
  • It was previously found that the accounting software used by the Post Office, known as Horizon, was faulty
  • In April 2021, dozens of convictions of Post Office branch managers were quashed by the Court of Appeal
  • Author, Oli Constable & PA Media
  • Role, 大象传媒 News

Two former sub-postmasters have had their convictions quashed by appeal judges, the latest in a series of Post Office workers to have their names cleared in the wake of the scandal over faulty accounting software.

The convictions of Sheila Coultas, 59, and Victor Ingham, 79, were unsafe, judges at a Court of Appeal hearing in London found on Thursday.

Ms Coultas had worked at a post office in Stamford, Lincolnshire, and Mr Ingham at a post office in Cemaes Bay, Anglesey, the judges were told.

More than 700 Post Office branch managers were potentially wrongly accused of false accounting between 2000 and 2014 due to a computer system called Horizon.

Many of the former sub-postmasters had been convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting offences.

Ms Coultas had appealed after admitting false accounting during a hearing at Lincoln Crown Court in 2008 and being given a conditional discharge.

Mr Ingham had appealed after admitting theft and false accounting at a hearing in Caernarfon Crown Court in 2005 and being given a 15-month jail sentence.

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Barrister Kate O'Raghallaigh had mounted appeals on behalf of Ms Coultas and Mr Ingham.

Lord Justice Holroyde, one of the three appeal judges, said they had concluded that both convictions were unsafe despite the guilty pleas.

In a scandal described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history, dozens of convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal in April 2021, subsequently paving the way for others to be overturned.

A public inquiry which started last year into the Horizon scandal heard the accounting system was "fatally flawed".

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