CPS involved in up to 99 Post Office convictions, leaked letter shows

Sir Keir Starmer has insisted none of the cases came across his desk during his tenure – Lewis Whyld/PA

The Crown Prosecution Service has admitted it may have been involved in 99 Post Office prosecutions involving the defective Horizon IT system, according to a leaked letter seen by The Telegraph.

In the letter, a senior executive also disclosed that 39 sub-postmasters “believed to have been prosecuted” by the CPS had been written to with advice on “how to challenge their convictions”.

Laura Tams, the CPS head of legal services, further revealed in the memo that two-thirds of the files concerning the 99 cases had been destroyed, meaning that “the evidence is now scarce”.

The letter was sent by Ms Tams to Prof Chris Hodges, the chairman of the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board, on Oct 3 last year, a little over a month after the CPS was asked about its “actions… and procedures and rules which apply to the process of overturning wrongful convictions”.

The scale of possible cases outlined in the letter is much higher than the 11 cases of fraud, theft and false accounting that the CPS has so far confirmed it had prosecuted that involved the Horizon IT system.

The CPS has insisted that the vast bulk of the cases – more than 900 in total – were private prosecutions brought by the Post Office against its own sub-postmasters.

On Thursday, the CPS said it was still trawling files. On Wednesday evening, it released details of its current audit, which showed 11 prosecutions in which it was involved over a 10-year period from 2008 to 2018.

Three of those cases were investigated under the watch of Sir Keir Starmer, now the Labour leader, who was director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013. The new figures from the CPS suggest more sub-postmasters were prosecuted by the CPS while he was in charge than previously thought.

Sir Keir has insisted none of the cases – and fears of wrongful convictions – ever came across his desk during his tenure.

Problems with the Horizon computer system were first exposed in 2009 in an investigation by Computer Weekly. Concerns intensified over time, prompting a public inquiry and an ITV drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which has ignited public anger over the scandal.

In her letter to Prof Hodges, Ms Tams explained that Peters & Peters, a law firm, had been instructed by the Post Office to investigate possible miscarriages of justice.

She said: “In order to identify potentially affected cases, Peters & Peters, acting on behalf of the Post Office, has provided to the CPS details of 99 cases which they think may have been prosecuted by the CPS and may have involved evidence from the Horizon system.

“These cases involve a range of offending, from robbery and burglary to theft and fraud offences. Not all of these cases are necessarily ‘Horizon cases’.”

Ms Tams accepted that “in many cases the evidence is now scarce”, explaining that the CPS “operates a file retention policy which requires that cases are destroyed after certain periods of time”.

Files on prosecutions in magistrates’ courts are destroyed after a year, and in Crown Court cases after five years unless there was a prison sentence longer than that.

Ms Tams wrote: “Where a case has been destroyed, we have no information or evidence by which to assess whether post-conviction disclosure is required.” She added: “Of the 99 cases, we have identified 32 cases where a file has been retained.”

The CPS, she said, had shared details of all its cases – including ones where files had been destroyed –- with the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the body that investigates possible wrongful convictions, which can then be referred to the Court of Appeal.

“At the time of writing, I understand that the CCRC has written to 39 sub-postmasters believed to have been prosecuted by the CPS with information on how to challenge their convictions,” said Ms Tams.

“In summary, the CPS is under a duty to disclose information about the reliability of the Horizon system where that may undermine the safety of the conviction.”

The CPS also opposed the recommendation by the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board that all Post Office convictions should be quashed. It protested that such a move “is contrary to our appeal system and is not a step which the CPS is able to take”.

Following the furore about the scandal, Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, announced on Wednesday that a new law that will exonerate sub-postmasters, with an ambition to quash all convictions this year.

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