Incident: The system's figure believed over people

Module 15 · Incident file · About 35 minutes

What happened

On 23 April 2021 the Court of Appeal gave judgment in the appeals of 42 people who had worked in branch post offices, as sub-postmasters, managers or counter assistants ([Hamilton & Ors v Post Office Ltd [2021] EWCA Crim 577, 23 April 2021](https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewca/crim/2021/577)). All had been "prosecuted by their employer and convicted of crimes of dishonesty", between 2003 and 2013. Post Office Limited (POL) brought each case as a private prosecutor. Their case, in the court's words, was that they "were prosecuted and convicted on the basis that Horizon was reliable, when in fact it was not."

Horizon was the branch accounting system, designed by ICL, later Fujitsu, piloted in 1999 and rolled out in 2000. The court quashed the convictions of 39 of the 42 appellants. It described the human cost: "many of these appellants went to prison", some went bankrupt, and three "have gone to their graves carrying that burden". In the related High Court litigation, the losses claimed by about 580 claimants totalled "about £18 million". This file states only what the judgment says. It is not legal advice.