Post Office staff were ordered to shred key documents which could have helped postmasters defend themselves against prosecutions.
Court of Appeal | Rosenblatt’s Financial Crime Team
Between 1999 and 2015 thousands of postmasters were sacked or prosecuted after money appeared to go missing from their branches. The Post Office was warned that glitches in its Horizon computer system may have been the cause but chose to pursue prosecutions anyway. Last week the Court of Appeal heard that Post Office staff were ordered to shred key documents which could have helped postmasters defend themselves against these prosecutions.
This evidence came to light on 22 March 2021 as the Court of Appeal began hearing the cases of 42 former sub postmasters whose convictions were referred to it by the Criminal Cases Review Commission last year following a landmark civil action against the Post Office. The firm have been warned that the destruction of these documents could constitute a “conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.”
The order to shred documents came about after the Post Office followed legal advice to make a central database of errors and bugs in its IT system. The firms’ bosses initially set up weekly meetings to monitor progress but following the third meeting an order was made to destroy all evidence of them.
All but 4 of the appeals are unopposed meaning at least 38 individuals will have their convictions overturned when the judgment is passed down on 23 April. The case continues.
The Post Office has already paid a £58million settlement to 557 postmasters after an acrimonious High Court battle and presently faces a further 2,400 claims.
Rosenblatt can help
Rosenblatt has a wealth of experience in financial crime and is uniquely placed to support clients that are the subject of Private Prosecutions or investigations by the Police having being involved in some of the most high profile investigations into multi-million-pound, cross jurisdictional fraud cases in the UK.
https://www.rosenblatt-law.co.uk/services/financial-crime/#financial-crime
https://www.rosenblatt-law.co.uk/services/serious-and-general-crime/
