Post Office Capture system
An independent review of the Post Office Capture system used by the network before the notorious Horizon system has found that there is a ‘reasonable likelihood’ that it also caused shortfalls in branch accounts.
Post Office Capture software was used in branches from 1992 onwards, with various versions and upgrades of the system introduced until the roll-out of Horizon in 1999.
It has been reported that more than 180 people were prosecuted by the Post Office between 1996 and 1998, whilst many post office sub-postmasters were suspended and sacked during its time in use.
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Statement from solicitor Neil Hudgell, of Hudgell Solicitors
The findings of this review are hugely significant. Like Horizon, Capture has been found to be unreliable – yet peoples’ lives were ruined on the basis of it being used as evidence to prosecute and convict people.
The cost to lives from the cases we have seen mirrors that of the devastation caused by the hundreds of prosecutions linked to Horizon.
It’s a very similar story of people being forced to pay back unexplained shortfalls running into many thousands of pounds, being suspended from their positions, convicted and essentially losing their livelihoods.
We are advising more than 70 people who have turned to us for help having experienced unexplained losses in their branch accounts during the 90s, when the Capture system was used across the Post Office network.
Like Horizon, it was a flawed system which was destroying lives whilst officials repeatedly ignored the evidence playing out in front of their eyes.
We know the Post Office was made aware of issues and software faults, yet when sub-postmasters experienced unexplained losses, they were blamed, made to balance the books, suspended and prosecuted.
Once again, it has only been as a result of the bravery, determination and resilience of those affected, who came forward to speak about what had happened to them, and ultimately would not let injustice go unchallenged, which led to this independent review being commissioned.
It should have never have needed such a long, hard battle to reach this stage, and there now must not be a long, hard battle ahead for exoneration and compensation.
As we have seen this year, new legislation can be fast-tracked and introduced to overturn unsafe convictions and clear peoples’ names.
Compensation schemes can be created which allow people, should they choose, to seek speedy settlements, or to further investigate their own individual cases. There needs to be fast action on these failings, faster than we have seen before.