Feed: Slashdot
Feed Link: https://slashdot.org/
---

Title: Were Still More UK Postmasters Also Wrongly Prosecuted Over Accounting
Bug?

Link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/04/06/0221...

U.K. postmasters were mistakenly sent to prison due to a bug in their
"Horizon" accounting software - as first reported by Computer Weekly back in
2009. Nearly 16 years later, the same site reports that now the Scottish
Criminal Cases Review Commission "is attempting to contact any former
subpostmasters that could have been prosecuted for unexplained losses on the
Post Office's pre-Horizon Capture software. "There are former subpostmasters
that, like Horizon users, could have been convicted of crimes based on data
from these systems..." Since the Post Office Horizon scandal hit the
mainstream in January 2024 - revealing to a wide audience the suffering
experienced by subpostmasters who were blamed for errors in the Horizon
accounting system - users of Post Office software that predated Horizon have
come forward... to tell their stories, which echoed those of victims of the
Horizon scandal. The Criminal Cases Review Commission for England and Wales
is now reviewing 21 cases of potential wrongful conviction... where the
Capture IT system could be a factor... The SCCRC is now calling on people
that might have been convicted based on Capture accounts to come forward.
"The commission encourages anyone who believes that their criminal
conviction, or that of a relative, might have been affected by the Capture
system to make contact with it," it said. The statutory body is also
investigating a third Post Office system, known as Ecco+, which was also
error-prone... A total of 64 former subpostmasters in Scotland have now had
their convictions overturned through the legislation brought through Scottish
Parliament. So far, 97 convicted subpostmasters have come forward, and 86
have been assessed, out of which the 64 have been overturned. However, 22
have been rejected and another 11 are still to be assessed. An independent
group, fronted by a former Scottish subpostmaster, is also calling on users
of any of the Post Office systems to come forward to tell their stories, and
for support in seeking justice and redress.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

---
VRSS v2.1.180528