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POL00031104
Tim Parker
Chairman
Finsbury Dials
20 Finsbury Street
LONDON
EC2Y SAQ
Priviteged and confidential
Paul Scully MP
Minister for London and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
1 Victoria Street
London
SWIH OET
29 Apri! 2020
Ve Miaises
The purpose of this letter is to bring to your attention the risk of a potentially substantial exposure
arising out of the announcement by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (“CCRC”) that it would be
referring the convictions of 39 Post Office applicants to the appeal courts’ with another 22 cases
under consideration.
The basis for the referrals will be that each prosecution amounted ta an “abuse of process... based
on issues with the Post Office’s Harizon comouter system which may have had an impact on the
cases referred”. A wide range of cases will be referred including convictions for theft, faise
accounting and fraud, both after tria! and following guilty pleas. We still await the CCRC’s
Statements of Reasons which will provide its full rationale for the referrals and formaily commence
the appeals process, but the CCRC has indicated that the same abuse of process argument, arising
from the Common issues and Horizon Issues judgments, will apply to each case,
Abuse of process is an exceptional remedy focussed on preventing unfairness. it requires a very high
threshold of unfairness before a conviction is overturned; far example, it will nat apply simoly
because the court thinks the prosecution was unwise. it is notable that the CCRC has not turned
down any application — not even those where defendants admitted to stealing from Post Office for
their personal benefit.
All the cases occurred between 2000-2013, following the introduction of Horizon, and were private
prosecutions by Royal Mail Group (pre-separation in 2012) or Post Office. Post Office has not
privately prosecuted any post-masters since 2015, Although the CCRC is presently reviewing only the
61 cases where it received a direct application from the defendant, Post Office has identified up to
959 cases privately prosecuted in which Horizon evidence was relied upon to secure a conviction. it
is reasonable to assume that the CCRC’s rationale would apply equaily to many of these defendants.
1 Thirty-five appeals from the Crown Court, which will be heard by the Court of Appeal; and four convictions
from the Magistrates’ Court, which will be heard in the Crown Court,
PostOffice.co.uk
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The Post Office Board, supported by Peters & Peters (cr
{civil and litigation specialists) and a numbe
nal law specialists), Herbert Smith F
highly arded QCs, has taken a number of step
order to comply with its legal duties and will continue to
m (through
CCRC and appeal courts) to reconsider those
warking closely with the CCRC to disci
onducting a post-convictic
currently
ni the safety of all histerical
impacting
the settlement of the Group Litigation to p:
demonstrate that the Past Office is
resolve historical convictions. This is a lengthy and covering not j
specific to the 959 cases, but a
t might reveal hist policies, p
or decisions within Post Office that might amount to an abuse of on Ss. This exe:
will carry on
in parallel to the proceedings in the Court of Appeal
ction disclosut ne
I
in the meantime, the Board is looking to ™:
volume of potential appeals efficiently
CCRC and Court of Appeal in r
ge
by making post-<
on to the referral proce
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