Investigation into potential second Post Office scandal will be ‘positive’ for sub-postmasters
The lawyer for those affected by Capture software predating the faulty Horizon system says his “belief” is that the “report is going to be positive”.
Neil Hudgell, a solicitor at Hudgell Solicitors, is representing over 40 former sub-postmasters who used Capture in the 1990s.
Dozens who used it claim they were wrongfully accused of stealing money from their Post Office branches, similar to the Horizon scandal.
Mr Hudgell told Sky News: “We need to see the report, we need to consider options.”
“But clearly, if it is a positive report”, he added, “and we are going to start talking about exoneration and compensation, then we need a process to reflect the ageing demographic of those involved, ie it needs to be quick, and we need to figure out what the quickest route is”.
Capture was introduced to some branches from 1992 – and was the predecessor to the faulty Horizon accounting software.
Under Horizon, hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted between 1999 and 2015.
What’s happening with the report?
An independent investigation into Capture began in the summer and has now concluded.
It was carried out by risk advisory and financial solutions company Kroll.
The report has now been passed to the Department for Business and Trade.
Former sub-postmaster Steve Marston believes he was falsely convicted of theft due to “glitches” in Capture software.
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Sub-postmasters have raised parallels between Capture and faulty Horizon software
The personal toll
Shortfalls of £79,000 were found at his branch in Greater Manchester.
Earlier this year, he met the then Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake when it was agreed that an independent IT expert would assess evidence claiming to “prove” Capture software was faulty.
Mr Marston said that “as a group” he believes those affected have provided “an overwhelming amount of evidence to show that Capture was totally unfit for use and should never have been released”.
He claims that sub-postmasters were told that “Capture would make our lives easier and that we would no longer have to do manual accounting as we had in the past”.
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He says he was given the software by the Post Office “and basically left to get on with it without any sort of guidance”.
He describes “extra stress” and that he and his wife “are struggling” whilst waiting for the conclusions to the Kroll report.
Campaigners discovered old floppy disks earlier this year with the Capture software on them and passed them on to investigators.
Mr Marston, and other sub-postmasters, say they show that errors in the system could generate false shortfalls in accounts and believe Capture evidence was used in his prosecution.
They also claim that it appears that errors occurred when upgrades were made to the software.
Other factors such as power cuts are also thought to be another possible reason for faults.
The Kroll report is due to be released in the next few weeks.
A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said: “We will thoroughly examine Kroll’s report into the Capture system and its impact on postmasters and set out next steps in due course.”
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