Post Office: Sub-postmasters' cases a step closer to court after SCCRC referral

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.scottishlegal.com/article/p ... c-referral

The cases of sub-postmasters in Scotland who may have been wrongly prosecuted by the Post Office over its faulty computer system have been referred for review by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC).

The SCCRC announced last year that it was investigating the issue in Scotland. It has identified eight cases, seven of which are to proceed while the remaining one is still being assessed.

If the cases pass the next stage they will be referred to court.

The seven that have passed a stage one assessment will go to a full review to determine whether there has been a miscarriage of justice.

A spokesman for the SCCRC detailed the two-part statutory test that needs to be satisfied in order for a case to proceed — “namely that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred and that it is in the interests of justice that a reference is made”.

The wrongful convictions were made between 2000 and 2014, during which period the Post Office prosecuted 736 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses based on its Horizon IT system.

More than 57 sub-postmasters have had their wrongful conviction overturned in England after they were falsely accused of stealing money.

A Post Office spokesman said: “We are extremely sorry for the personal tragedies and deep pain suffered by victims of the Horizon scandal. We are participating fully in the independent inquiry established by the government to investigate what happened in the past and we have implemented fundamental reforms to ensure that such events could never happen again.”