WITNO0650100
WITNESS: SEEMA MISRA
STATEMENT NUMBER: WITNOO65_01
EXHIBITS: 3
DATED: 17 February 2022
POST OFFICE HORIZON IT INQUIRY
FIRST WITNESS STATEMENT OF SEEMA MISRA
I, Seema Misra, will say as follows:
1. In 2008 I was subpostmistress at the West Byfleet post office. A so-called Post
Office “audit” in January 2008 led to the accusation by the Post Office that I was
responsible for a shortfall of about £74,600. On 21 October 2010, following a trial
in the Crown Court at Guildford before Judge Stewart and a jury, I was convicted
of theft. On 11 November 2010, I was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment for
the theft and six months’ imprisonment concurrently on each count of false
accounting. For various reasons, including relating to the “evidence” of Gareth
Jenkins and non-disclosure of key information by POL, it was impossible for me to
have a fair trial.
2. It was my son’ GRO I tenth birthday on the day I was sentenced. I was taken out
of the Court in handcuffs. A respectable woman so ashamed of my conviction I
begged a prison officer to hide my handcuffs with their coat as I was led away to
jail. I was eight weeks’ pregnant with my so was 10 years old,
he had to live with the lie that his mother was a criminal.
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3. The Post Office concealed material from me, material that would have enabled me
to successfully appeal my conviction from not later than 2013. On being sentenced,
I was admitted to hospital. Had I not been pregnant, I would have considered
taking my own life. I was portrayed in the press as a "pregnant thief". Since the
time of my conviction in November 2010 my life and that of my family was ruined
by my wrongful prosecution and my wrongful conviction for theft, my experience of
prison - which unsurprisingly has never left me - and the catastrophic personal and
financial consequences that followed. I had to wait until 23" April 2021 for my
conviction to be quashed. The Court of Appeal, which used more space in its
judgment to discuss me than any other appellant, had “no hesitation” in quashing
my conviction as abuse of process of the court; my trial was unfair. My prosecution
was held to be an affront to the conscience of the court.
4. I would like to include just three pieces from publicly available sources. There are
many. A brief google search “seema misra — post office “reveals some 140,000
results. However, the core of this statement is contained in the previous three
paragraphs.
i) This first one is from Evidence Based Justice Lab at the University of
Exeter (Exhibit 1)
“Seema Misra was one of the “Post Office 39,” a group of former sub-
postmasters and post-mistresses who were convicted of offences including
theft, false accounting, and fraud, based on information from a computer
system called Horizon which suggested that money had gone missing from
post-office branch accounts. Ms Misra pleaded guilty to six counts of false
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ii)
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accounting and was found guilty of theft following a trial in the Crown Court.
She was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment for the theft and six months’
imprisonment concurrently on each count of false accounting. She was
ordered to pay compensation of £40,000 to the Post Office. She served four
months in prison while pregnant. The basis of each of the prosecutions of
the “Post Office 39” was that money missing from the branch account had
been a result of theft by the sub-postmaster or mistress or had been covered
up by fraud or false accounting by the sub-postmaster or mistress. On
appeal, the Court of Appeal accepted findings that bugs, errors, and defects
in Horizon could, and did, cause discrepancies and shortfalls in branch
accounts. The court concluded that if the Horizon data was not reliable then
there was no basis for the prosecution, and the convictions were quashed.
The court noted that failures of investigation and disclosure in the cases
prevented the appellants from challenging, or challenging effectively, the
reliability of the Horizon data.”
The second is an extract from a piece in a newspaper called Eastern
Eye—29'" April 2021 (Exhibit 2)
“IMAGINE a scene in which Paula Vennells has her knee pressed on Seema
Misra’s neck so she cannot breathe. This is effectively what Vennels, chief
executive of the Post Office, and her senior staff did when pursuing a
malicious prosecution of Seema, a subpostmaster in West Byfleet, Surrey.
Seema, who received a 15-month prison sentence at Guildford crown court
in 2010 for “stealing” £74,609, was eight months pregnant. It now turns out
she was completely innocent. There was a glitch in the Post Office’s Horizon
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computer system which was responsible for the shortfall. The only way
justice can be done in one of the worst miscarriages of justice Britain has
seen in decades is for Vennels and her senior executives to be prosecuted
and given exemplary prison terms. Ten years would not be too much.
Seema, who collapsed in court when her sentence was announced, said: “!
would definitely have killed myself if I hadn’t been pregnant.” Seema was
suspended in 2008 after an “audit” found the accounting discrepancy. Over
two years she had attempted to balance her books, borrowing money and
transferring takings, but failed to keep her head above water. During the
trial, the Post Office deliberately withheld information that would have
helped her.
“They played with people’s lives,” said Seema. “Those at the Post Office
who knew what was going on should go to prison. “During her trial, she
refused to plead guilty, believing justice would prevail. Seema was given a
conditional release after four months but had to wear an electronic tag.
“People stopped talking to us,” she recalled. Her taxi driver husband,
vealed: “I was beaten up and called a ‘f***ing P*ki’, coming to
this country and stealing old people’s money.” Seema, who was dubbed
GRO_ I now 45 and 49 respectively, were forced
the “pregnant thief’ an
to move home. “No amount of money can make up for the struggle I went
through,” she said.”
iii) The third is an extract from Mail Online — 24" April 2021 (Exhibit 3)
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“Postmaster, 45, cries as the High Court quashes her criminal conviction for
theft and false accounting which saw her jailed when she was pregnant.
Seema Misra served four months of a 15-month sentence in 2011 while
pregnant. She was suspended from her post office she ran in West Byfleet,
Surrey in 2008. She was convicted of theft and false accounting which has
finally been quashed
Sitting in the High Court as her name was read out yesterday, it took Seema
Misra a few moments to compute that her criminal conviction had finally been
quashed. Only after her eyes met with other sub-postmasters and her social
media feed revealed the news did she allow it to sink in. Then, tears fell.
‘It was very important that I came to court and heard it from the judges myself,
after waiting so long, but it didn't feel real at first. I wanted to double check,’
says Mrs Misra, 45, who served four months of a 15-month sentence in 2011,
while pregnant, after being wrongly convicted of theft and false accounting. ‘I
felt a mixture of emotions. Happy and grateful, but also angry and betrayed
that this happened and that it has taken so many years for my name to be
cleared.' She feels vindicated not only by the verdict but the finding the Post
Office withheld information that would have given her and the 38 other sub-
postmasters whose convictions were quashed a fair trial.
'They did this deliberately,’ says Mrs Misra, who ran a post office in West
Byfleet, Surrey. ‘They played with people's lives. Those at the Post Office who
knew what was going on should go to prison. 'Before yesterday's ruling sleep
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didn't come easily for Mrs Misra, who lives in nearby with taxi driver
Every half hour
I'd have a nightmare that I didn't hear my alarm, or missed my train,’ she says.
‘I knew we'd get justice. But it shouldn't have taken this long.’
‘No amount of money can make up for the struggle I went through,’ says Mrs
Misra, who was suspended from her post office in 2008 after auditors found
a £74,609 shortfall she couldn't explain.
Her conviction has cast a shadow over every aspect of her life since her
week-long trial at Guildford Crown Court in October 2010 saw her imprisoned
while eight weeks pregnant with ‘A respectable woman so ashamed of
her conviction she begged a prison officer to hide her handcuffs with their
coat as she was led away to jail, she would have considered suicide, were it
not for the new life growing inside her. She gave birth two months after her
release, on tag, after which the shame of her conviction made life unbearable.
‘People stopped talking to us,' she says, while Mr Misra adds: 'I was beaten
up and called a 'f***ing P*ki, coming to this country and stealing old people's
money.’ They moved house but Mrs Misra, who developed depression, still
felt unable to show her face at the school gates. 'I assumed everyone knew,
and they weren't talking to me because I was a criminal.’ She didn't throw a
birthday party for her youngest son for eight years. 'I didn't want everyone to
mum was the one who went to prison,’ she explains. Mrs
Misra, who sold the post office for less than half the price she paid, started
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helping her husband run his taxi firm. But while she was in prison, Mr Misra
had to single-parent and the business floundered. The couple's second
property in London had already been seized to pay off the missing
money. Even on her release, Mrs Misra was unable to get work because of
her conviction. Once a financial controller in the City, she says: 'l thought I'd
be able to become an Uber driver but couldn't. When I applied for funds to do
courses to re-enter the financial industry I wasn't allowed.’
Even the most mundane activities caused pain. 'Whenever I filled out a form
for something like car insurance, I'd have to state my conviction. It brought
the bad memories back.’ But Mrs Misra will cherish the everyday changes
most. ‘All those forms I had to fill in stating my conviction,’ she says quietly.
‘I won't have to do that anymore.”
Nick Wallis book
5. Finally, may I draw the Inquiry’s attention to the following pages, which were read
by me before publication:
The Forward/ Pages 103—119 for background as to what happened to the
Misras/ Pages 138—142 for her trial/ Pages 143—45 Seema is sent to prison
/Page 153/Page 426/428-429.
6. These pages explain in a way which brings home the reality more than I ever could,
what happened to one person — one family.
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Statement of Truth
! wish this statement to stand as my statement to the Inquiry.
I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true.
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