Post Office objection to Capture appeals is 'inexplicable and unconscionable' | Computer Weekly

"Hodges said that contesting the Capture appeals "completely undermines any trust in statements that the Post Office is sorry, has changed, and can now be trusted" in the ongoing scandal of subpostmasters wrongfully convicted as a result of flawed accounting software."

"Capture was a PC-based software application that pre-dated the Horizon system, which has been at the heart of the scandal. Three appeals against pre-Horizon convictions have been sent to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) so far. Two of these are convictions based on the Capture system, and one is regarding a conviction based on a system known as the Automatic Payment Terminal (APT)."

"Railton replied that he understood the advisory board's concerns, but that the "Post Office must nevertheless act in accordance with the rules and requirements of the independent judicial system and our legal duties as the original prosecutor - which, given past mistakes, Post Office takes very seriously"."

""There appears to us to be no reason why the PO could not make a statement to the Court of Appeal that in the current situation, where the PO has caused such harm to the victims, it does not feel right or conscionable that it should object to any appeals brought by victims or having been independently reviewed by the CCRC, and it trusts that the PO will understand the r"

Hodges, chair of the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board, replied to Nigel Railton’s justification for contesting Capture appeals. Hodges said contesting the appeals undermines trust in statements that the Post Office is sorry, has changed, and can now be trusted. Capture was a PC-based system predating Horizon and is linked to wrongful convictions in the ongoing scandal. The Criminal Cases Review Commission has referred three pre-Horizon convictions to the Court of Appeal, including two based on Capture and one based on APT. The CCRC is also reviewing around 30 additional cases involving software predating Horizon. Hodges argued the Post Office could make a statement to the Court of Appeal expressing that objecting to appeals is not right or conscionable given the harm caused to victims.

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