The Post Office is contesting a wrongful conviction appeal by a former subpostmaster who experienced problems with its Capture system in the 1990s.
This is despite Post Office chairman Nigel Railton agreeing in January that all Capture-based convictions should be overturned through legislation.
In a business and trade select committee hearing in January, he was asked whether, like with Horizon-related convictions, legislation should be used to overturn them en masse. He said “yes”.
In the same hearing, when asked whether there is a case for extending the legislation to Capture users, Amanda Pearce, interim CEO at the CCRC, said: “There is a case for looking at it, absolutely.”
While hundreds of convictions based on evidence from the faulty Horizon system are being overturned through the unprecedented legislation, users of other systems, including Capture, are being processed through the CCRC.
Three cases based on pre-Horizon software have so far been sent to the Court of Appeal, and the Post Office is contesting them all. These consist of Marston’s appeal, as well as that of the family of Patricia Owen and that of Gareth Snow – who was prosecuted based on evidence from the APT system.
In March, Marston’s appeal became the second Capture case to be referred to the Court of Appeal. He was subpostmaster in Bury, Lancashire, and convicted in 1997 for theft and false accounting, following an unexplained shortfall of nearly £80,000. Marston said he 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.
Formal appeal
Owen, who died in 2003, pleaded not guilty to the theft of £6,000, but in 1998 was convicted and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, at Canterbury Crown Court. Her appeal was formally sent to the Court of Appeal in October last year.
Asked who made the decision to contest Marston’s appeal, a Post Office spokesperson said: “Our response to these appeals are subject to extensive legal advice, and our role is to assist the Court of Appeal’s deliberation of the unique legal and factual issues prosecutions that may have involved the Capture software require. This is entirely a decision for the Court once they have considered all relevant information, and Post Office will welcome their considered guidance.”
Solicitor Neil Hudgell of Hudgell Solicitors, which represents many former Capture users appealing convictions, said: “The Post Office continues to repeat its failings of the past. Understandably, subpostmasters say they continue not to trust them. Like Patricia Owen, they contest Steve Marston’s appeal. They are entitled to do that, but what they ought to do is have the decency to say so rather than hide behind mealy mouthed words from an unnamed spokesperson that distorts the full picture. We will continue the fight in the Court of Appeal next week and beyond.”
There are currently about 30 prosecutions under review by the CCRC. Unlike convictions based on the Horizon system, which were overturned en masse through legislation, those based on Capture have to go through the CCRC.
The Post Office said it is treating each appeal on a case-by-case basis.
Capture users prosecuted
Capture, which predates Fujitsu’s Horizon system, was used in Post Office branches in the 1990s to replace paper-based accounting. Like with the controversial Horizon system at the centre of the Post Office scandal, which saw subpostmasters blamed for unexplained losses, some Capture users were prosecuted for financial crimes.
The controversy over Capture 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.
In the same month, Kevan Jones, an MP at the time who now sits in the House of Lords, highlighted evidence of injustices triggered by Capture losses.
This led to a campaign and, by December 2024, 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 caused accounting losses.
Marston, like the family of Patricia Owen, has been a central figure in the campaign for justice for former Capture users.
During January’s business and trade select committee hearing, the CCRC said it is currently assessing 35 potential miscarriages of justice of users of various Post Office IT systems that came before Horizon.
Computer Weekly first exposed the Post Office scandal in 2009, revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffered as a result of the Horizon system.