Post Office admits to losing records of 19 prosecuted Scots subpostmasters

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The Post Office has lost the records of almost 20 cases involving the prosecution of subpostmasters in Scotland, the Sunday Mail can reveal.

The organisation, which is at the centre of the biggest miscarriage of justice in UK history, said it has no record of 19 cases and only discovered the issue when told by the Crown Office.

The revelations have sparked fury from subpostmasters, politicians and lawyers who said the poor handling of records could prevent wrongfully convicted people receiving justice.Chris Dawson, 50, was wrongly accused of stealing £17,500 from his post office in Pitlochry in 2010, said: “This angers me.

It’s beyond belief they have no record of 19 cases they were involved in.“That could mean there’s 19 people who haven’t had access to the justice they deserve, are entitled to redress and compensation and know nothing of it.”It comes after the Scottish Government announced in June it would follow Westminster in bringing in a mass exoneration scheme for those wrongfully convicted.Stuart Munro, head of criminal litigation at Livingston Brown, said the reliability of the scheme was now under threat.He said: “It’s concerning that, years after this scandal became known, neither the Crown nor the Post Office is able to say how many sub-postmasters they were responsible for prosecuting.“Without that knowledge those affected and the public as a whole can have no confidence in the mass exoneration scheme.“Victims of this scandal have seen their lives ruined by the corrupt actions of the state yet a failure to identify cases will see victims again denied justice.”Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today.You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the