WITNESS: SEEMA MISRA
STATEMENT NO: WITNO065_01
EXHIBIT: WITNOO65_01/1
POST OFFICE HORIZON IT INQUIRY
EXHIBIT 1
The following documentation comprises the exhibit referenced as exhibit 1
in the witness statement of Mrs Seema Misra referenced WITNO065_01.
22/02/2022, 10:31
Seema Misra - Evidenced Based Justice Lab - University of Exeter
SEEMA MISRA
YEARS INPRISON:
YEAR OF CRIME: 2008
YEAR CONVICTION WAS OVERTURNED: 2021
Seema Misra was one of the “Post O@ce 39,” a group
of former sub-postmasters and post-mistresses who
were convicted of o@ences including theft, false
accounting, and fraud, based on information from a
computer system called Horizon which suggested
that money had gone missing from post-o@ce
branch accounts.
Ms Misra pleaded guilty to six counts of false
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 O@ce. She served four months in
prison while pregnant.
The basis of each of the prosecutions of the “Post
O@ce 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
@dings 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
e@ectively, the reliability of the Horizon data.
View Press (www.theguardian.com)
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https://evidencebasedjustice.exeter.ac.uk/case/seema-misra/
PSYCHOLOGY, DATA SCIENCE, AND LAW
At the University of Exeter Law School
O@ence: Theft / fraud
wirisdiction: England & Wales
County: Surrey
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: F
Years in prison: .5
O@ence convicted of: Theft and
False Accounting
Year of crime: 2008
Year of initial conviction: 2010
Year conviction was overturned:
2021
CCRC Referral: Y
Post O@ce Case: Y
Tried with others: N
Link to full case:
https://www judiciary.uk/wp-
content/uploads/2021/04/Ha
milton-Others-v-Post-O@ce-
judgment-230421.pdf.
Crown argued case at CofA:
Argued one ground but not the
other
Retrial: N
112
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Seema Misra - Evidenced Based Justice Lab - University of Exeter
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