The Criminal Cases Review Commission [CCRC] is now looking at 21 cases related to Capture, a faulty IT system rolled out to thousands of branches in the 1990s before the notorious Horizon software, Sky News reports.
But the true scale of the Capture scandal could be much larger.
It came after months of reporting by The i Paper on Capture, the IT system rolled out between 1992 and 1999 which was prone to bugs and glitches and caused losses for sub-postmasters when trying to balance their books.
Steve Marston, who was prosecuted after using Capture. (Photo: Tom Pilston)
Instead, the Government wants the CCRC, the independent body which handles miscarriages of justice, to take Capture cases to the Court of Appeal as soon as possible.
Mr Marston says he was pressured into pleading guilty to criminal offences of theft and false accounting after auditors claimed around £79,000 was missing from the books at his branch in Heap Bridge, Greater Manchester, in 1998.
On Thursday, he and other sub-postmasters who were pursued by the Post Office over Capture will meet with representatives from the Department of Business and Trade to discuss compensation.
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Read More“There’s going to be a lot more people that are either unwilling to come forward or really just don’t want to dig it all back up again,” he said.
Mr Marston hit out at the length of time it was taking to acquire compensation called for the Government to overturn Capture convictions as it had done with Horizon victims.
“It’s looking less and less likely that anything will happen on, you know, properly, if you like, until towards the end of the year.
“There’s people in the 70s. It’s this age group where people are beginning to die off.”
“The destroyed lives, bankruptcy, the anguish and suffering, everything’s identical, except for the software,” he said.
Liam Byrne, chair of the Business Committee, said there was a “strong case” to consider a blanket amnesty.
No10 has not ruled out a blanket pardon but cautioned this case will not be “the same necessarily as Horizon”, arguing there is a degree of nuance.
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