A lawyer representing people affected by a “second Post Office IT scandal” has said they “must not” have “a long, hard battle ahead for exoneration and compensation”.
A report today found it is “a reasonable likelihood” that Capture software “created shortfalls” for sub-postmasters prior to the Horizon scandal.
The system, which was the predecessor to Horizon, was rolled out to branches from 1993 onwards.
An inquiry into the Post Office’s Horizon accounting system has heard that more than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted and received criminal convictions because the IT system made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.
At least 40 former sub-postmasters claim they were also falsely accused of stealing as a result of “glitches” in Capture.
The independent report into Capture by Kroll, a risk advisory and financial solutions company, concluded it was “a reasonable likelihood that Capture could have created shortfalls for sub postmasters”.
Kroll has not made any conclusions about the safety of criminal convictions. It did find that 13.5% of all branches may have been using Capture.
The report also discovered that sub-postmasters said that network managers and area managers pressured them to use the system.
It said that legal investigation teams weren’t looking at the question of “bugs or errors” in the system at the time.
Kroll also questioned the Capture Helpdesk remit and effectiveness.
Following the publication of the report, Neil Hudgell, a solicitor at Hudgells solicitors, told Sky News his firm is advising more than 70 people who experienced unexplained losses at their branches when Capture was in use.
He said: “Like Horizon, it was a flawed system which was destroying lives whilst officials repeatedly ignored the evidence playing out in front of their eyes.”
The independent review has only taken place “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”, he added.
Mr Hudgell is calling for “fast action on these failings” including the creation of a compensation scheme to allow people to “seek speedy settlements, or to further investigate their own individual cases”.
“It should 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,” he said. “As we have seen this year, new legislation can be fast-tracked and introduced to overturn unsafe convictions and clear peoples’ names.”
Lord Beamish, formerly MP Kevan Jones, was at the report briefing meeting and said he believes that records on Capture “do exist”.
“I think some more digging needs to be done at the Post Office,” he said. “I wouldn’t trust the Post Office as far as I can spit.”
He described it as a “copycat” of the Horizon scandal.
A Post Office spokesperson said: “We have, and will continue to, fully support the independent forensic accountancy investigation established by the government into the Capture software.
“We have been very concerned from the outset about the reported problems relating to the use of the Capture software in the 1990s and are sincerely sorry for past failings that have caused suffering to postmasters.
“We remain determined that wrongs must be put right as far as that can be possible.”
Earlier this year, Sky News revealed that the government agreed to have an independent expert review evidence of Capture.
A group of sub-postmasters submitted material, including floppy disks containing the software, to investigators.
They claimed that errors occurred when upgrades were made to Capture, and power cuts were also another possible reason for faults.
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Steve Marston, 68, says he was wrongly convicted of theft and false accounting after errors caused by Capture accounting software.
Auditors found shortfalls of £79,000 at his branch in Greater Manchester in 1998 – he subsequently pleaded guilty to theft and false accounting.
He said Capture “was totally unfit for use and should never have been released”.
He claims that sub-postmasters were told that “[the software] would make our lives easier and that we would no longer have to do manual accounting as we had in the past”.
He says he was given Capture by the Post Office “and basically left to get on with it without any sort of guidance”.
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Another Capture victim, Steve Lewis, lost his job in 2000 after raising concerns about shortfalls and Capture software glitches.
“I’ve always been looked on as being the man who robbed the Post Office,” he said.
“I lost my post office, the commercial buildings that I had moved my office to, and was forced to sell my family home.”
Mr Lewis claims he was warned “not to be a troublemaker” and told the issues were only happening to him.
It wasn’t until he watched the TV drama, Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, that he “realised” similarities between Horizon victims and himself such as “unexplained losses”.
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Documents seen by Sky News also show the Post Office knew Capture was prone to glitches which could cause accounting issues.
In January, the government ordered the Post Office to investigate the claims related to Capture.
