A newly discovered report into a faulty Post Office IT system at the heart of a second scandal could help quash criminal convictions of sub-postmasters.
The system, Capture, was prone to bugs and faults but sub-postmasters were forced to hand over money, sacked, and in some cases faced criminal prosecution by the Post Office for accounting errors.
A report from IT experts, unearthed after almost 30 years, was commissioned for the defence of Patricia Owen, one of the Post Office workers convicted, and described Capture as “an accident waiting to happen”.
IT specialist Adrian Montagu and his colleague’s investigation said the software was “totally discredited” while concluding “reasonable doubt exists as to whether any criminal offence has taken place”.
Mr Montagu and his business partner at a computing consultancy firm concluded “bugs and errors existed in sufficiently significant numbers and seriousness” meaning “any evidence relying on or related to it must be regarded as very unsafe”.
Ms Owen’s daughters Deborah, left, and Juliet say their mother was ‘destroyed’ by the Post OfficeMs Owen ran a Post Office branch in Sweechgate near Canterbury, Kent. She was convicted of theft in 1998 over a shortfall in her branch of only £6,000 and received a suspended prison sentence, died in 2003.
The problems with Capture, which predates the Horizon scandal, were uncovered by The i Paper last year. Hundreds of postmasters may have been wrongly convicted for accounting issues related to the faulty IT system.
As a result of the long-running investigation by The i Paper, the Government ordered an independent review of Capture, which found sub-postmasters were likely to have suffered unexplained losses because of the software.
Mr Montagu, now 77, was due to be a defence witness for Ms Owen at her trial at Canterbury Crown Court, but says he was stood down by her barrister for “no reason”.
Her family always believed he had not turned up in court, but he has now produced notes to show he was there.
“I was very shocked by this. It did not make any sense,” said Mr Montagu. “I was told by Mrs Owen’s barrister that I wasn’t needed, and I was dismissed.
“He did not give me a reason why. I was simply told to go home. I was shocked when I later learned that Mrs Owen had been convicted.”
The report says the Capture software “is quite capable of producing absurd gibberish”, and has “several insidious faults… which would not be necessarily apparent to the user”.
It goes on to say these issues caused “arithmetical or accounting errors”.
The Capture software was rolled out to Post Office branches starting in 1992Speaking to Sky News, Ms Owen’s family say her conviction was a contributing factor in her ill health and “wrecked” her life.
Her daughter Juliet said: “We just keep discovering more and more details which demonstrate that, once the Post Office decided it wanted to prosecute our mother, she was on a hiding to nothing.
“We’ve no explanation at all as to why her legal team would commission an extensive expert investigation into Capture, resulting in a report which runs to more than 100 pages, and labelled the system as being faulty and gibberish, to then choose to ignore it.
“The legal team literally had expert evidence in their hands to say the prosecution of my mother was unsafe, and not just her of course, all others prosecuted in relation to Capture.”
It is claimed that documents show that the jury may never have seen Mr Montagu’s report, which has been sitting in his garage for more than 20 years.
The bid to have Ms Owen’s conviction quashed has been submitted to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to be considered for referral to the Court of Appeal
Neil Hudgell, a lawyer representing more than 100 Capture victims, believes Mr Montagu coming forward could be “very pivotal in helping clear Ms Owen and other Capture victims.
“The report was very clear in its findings. Capture was totally discredited and found to be entirely unreliable for use as any form of evidence with regard to branch account discrepancies,” he said.
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“If this report had seen the light of day in its proper sense, and been presented to the court as it had been prepared for, it would likely have undermined the very basis of prosecution and charge in the first place.”
Refering to the more recent IT scandal affecting sub-postmasters, concerning the Horizon IT stystem, he added: “This certainly follows a theme we have seen in investigating the hundreds of prosecutions relating to Horizon which followed in subsequent years.
“Vital information and evidence which was under the noses of the Post Office somehow managed to be brushed aside and ignored for decades.”
A Post Office spokesperson said: “We have been very concerned about the reported problems relating to the use of the Capture software and are sincerely sorry for past failings that have caused suffering to postmasters.
“We are determined that past wrongs are put right and are continuing to support the Government’s work and fully co-operating with the Criminal Cases Review Commission as it investigates several cases which may be Capture-related.”
A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said: “Postmasters including Patricia Owen endured immeasurable suffering, and we continue to listen to those who have been sharing their stories on the Capture system.
“Government officials met with postmasters recently as part of our commitment to develop an effective and fair redress process for those affected by Capture, and we will continue to keep them updated.”
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