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R v Sheila Coultas & Anor.

[2023] EWCA Crim 606
Two post office workers were wrongly convicted because the computer system used against them was faulty and the post office hid that fact. The court threw out the convictions.

Key Facts

  • Sheila Coultas and Victor Ingham were former sub-postmasters convicted of dishonesty offences based on data from the Horizon accounting system.
  • Coultas pleaded guilty to false accounting in 2008, related to a £39,454.72 shortfall.
  • Ingham pleaded guilty in 2005 to theft and false accounting, relating to a £66,948.36 shortfall.
  • Both maintained their innocence, attributing the shortfalls to errors in the Horizon system.
  • Both Coultas and Ingham made prior reports of discrepancies to Post Office Limited (POL).
  • Subsequent sub-postmasters also reported similar unexplained shortfalls.
  • POL failed to disclose concerns regarding the reliability of Horizon to the defendants.
  • POL conceded that Horizon reliability was essential to the prosecutions and that there was a failure of disclosure.

Legal Principles

Abuse of process and unsafe convictions due to unreliable evidence and failure of disclosure.

R v Josephine Hamilton and Others [2021] EWCA Crim 577, R v Robert Ambrose and Others [2021] EWCA Crim 1443, R v Roger Allen and Others [2021] EWCA Crim 1874, R v Margaret White and Others [2022] EWCA Crim 435, and R v Richard Hawkes and Others [2022] EWCA Crim 1197

Prosecutor's continuing duty of disclosure post-conviction.

This case

Outcomes

Appeals allowed; convictions quashed.

The court found the prosecutions unfair and an affront to justice due to the reliance on unreliable Horizon data and a failure of disclosure. The convictions were deemed unsafe.

Coultas' travel expenses reimbursed.

Granted as part of the appeal's resolution.

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