WE ARE A MAGAZINE ABOUT LAW AND JUSTICE | AND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO
May 19 2026
WE ARE A MAGAZINE ABOUT LAW AND JUSTICE | AND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO
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Post Office decision to contest Capture appeals ‘an insult’ to victims

Post Office decision to contest Capture appeals ‘an insult’ to victims

The Post Office is contesting appeals against potential wrongful convictions based on the dodgy Capture accounting software, despite telling MPs in January that they’d like to see these convictions overturned en masse, like those based on the Horizon computing system.

The head of the body charged with administering compensation to Horizon victims has described the Post Office’s decision to contest these appeals as ‘an insult’ and ‘not right or conscionable’.

The Capture accounting system was in place prior to the disastrous roll-out of Horizon which saw hundreds wrongfully convicted of fraud and theft, and many imprisoned. The scope of the inquiry into this scandal drew attention to Capture, which has since also been found to have presented anomalies on which convictions relied. Many sub-postmasters have subsequently appealed these convictions.

The case of Patricia Owen was the first Capture case to be referred by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) in October 2025. Owen was convicted of theft in 1998, based on the data of her Post Office branch’s accounting system, which pre-dated the now infamous Horizon software. Owen died in April 2003 before she was able to clear her name over the £6,000 accounting shortfall and an application to the CCRC was made on her behalf by her family in January last year.

In March, Steve Marston’s appeal became the second Capture case to be referred by the CCRC. He was convicted in 1997 for theft and false accounting, following a shortfall of nearly £80,000 being identified at his branch.

The Post Office is contesting Marston’s appeal which is due in court next week, despite the Post Office chairman agreeing in January in front of the Business and Trade Select Committee that all Capture-based convictions should be overturned through legislation.

In an excoriating letter to Nigel Railton, Head of the Post Office, Christopher Hodges who is chair of the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board described the move as  an ‘insult’. He said it ‘completely undermines any trust in statements that the Post Office is sorry, has changed, and can now be trusted.’ He criticised their actions as ‘excessively legalistic’ and expressed concern that the body was shifting blame onto its legal advisors, the same legal advisors whose conduct is now in the spotlight through the ongoing Post Office Horizon inquiry for what he describes as ‘matters of significant concern’.

Solicitor Neil Hudgell of Hudgell Solicitors, which represents sub-postmasters appealing Capture convictions, told Computers Weekly: ‘The Post Office continues to repeat its failings of the past. Understandably, sub-postmasters say they continue not to trust them. Like Patricia Owen, they contest Steve Marston’s appeal. They are entitled to do that, but what they ought to do is have the decency to say so rather than hide behind mealy mouthed words from an unnamed spokesperson that distorts the full picture. We will continue the fight in the Court of Appeal next week and beyond.’There are currently about 30 prosecutions based on the evidence provided by the Capture system under review with the CCRC. The Post Office has said they will treat each one on a case by case basis.

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Samantha Dulieu is a freelance writer and News Editor of The Justice Gap. She has covered some of the most high profile miscarriages of justice in the UK, as well as law, policy, human rights issues, prisons, protest and migration. She also offers her expertise to All party Parliamentary Group on miscarriages of justice through its secretariat, the Future Justice Project.

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