22 October 2025
The first Post Office Capture conviction—the accounting software used before the faulty Horizon system—has been referred for appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC)
The 1988 conviction for theft of former sub-postmistress Patricia Owen was submitted to the court this week on the grounds her prosecution was an abuse of process. Mrs Owen died in 2003 and her family applied to the CCRC last January.
The Court of Appeal will now decide whether the conviction is unsafe and should be quashed.
Dame Vera Baird KC, chair of the CCRC, said: ‘We have more than 30 applications to refer Post Office convictions which predate Horizon and most of these cases are under active investigation.
‘In some of these very old cases, there is a dearth of paperwork, dates or other information.’
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