Appeal judges have cleared a dozen more former subpostmasters wrongly convicted as a result of the PostOffice Horizon scandal. In April, the Court of Appeal ruled that the convictions of 39 subpostmasters were unsafe because they had been based on evidence from the post office’s own flawed IT system, which was used to prosecute a total of 736 people over a period of almost 15 years.

Lord Justice Holroyde and two other judges quashed the convictions of Robert Ambrose, Hasmukh Shingadia, John Armstrong, Timothy Brentnall, Jerry Hosi, Gurdeep Singh Dhale, John Dickson, Abiodun Omotoso, Malcolm Watkins, Sami Sabet, Carina Price and Rizwan Manjra.

The Press Association reported that their appeals went  unopposed by the Post Office and the court was also considering appeals by a further 18 subpostmasters on Monday. ‘Today is another step forward in terms of maintaining the momentum and ensuring we continue to contest every unsafe conviction as a result of the Post Office using its faulty Horizon computer system to pursue prosecutions against decent, honest, law-abiding people,’ said solicitor Neil Hudgell, of Hudgell Solicitors. ‘Once again we have been proud to represent a group of people here who did no wrong, who were bullied into admitting to crimes they had not committed, made to pay back large sums of money they had not taken and who saw their lives irreparably damaged as a result. This group again includes people who spent time in prison. Sadly, what happened to each individual and their families can never be reversed. That makes it all the more important for it to be recognised by the Post Office and the courts.’