Merseyside former sub-postmistress’ wrongful conviction quashed

A former sub-postmistress from Merseyside, among six others, has had her conviction overturned on Wednesday (22) after a 20 year fight for justice, in the Horizon IT scandal.

According to recent reports, Sushma Blaggan, who ran Dale Acre Post Office in Litherland, was convicted over an unexplained shortfall of £8,000 in 2004. She was ordered to carry out 240 hours of community service.

Blaggan’s hearing took place at a Southwark Crown Court hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

Narrinder Blaggan, Sushma’s husband, told BBC, “For Sushma to have appeared in court two decades after being wrongfully prosecuted, and for an inquiry only to be hearing from Ms Vennells as to what went wrong on the very same day, just shows how badly subpostmasters have been let down.”

“Sushma was destroyed by what happened to her. When she was first suspended she tried to commit suicide, and then she did so again after she had been convicted.”

Narrinder was also suspended from running a Post Office in Liverpool due to an unexplained shortfall in accounts, and was made to sell the branch and re-mortgage his home.

“It destroyed our lives,” he said. “This should have been prevented, and certainly justice should have been done for subpostmasters much quicker than this. We should have had answers and the full truth long ago.”

Solicitor Neil Hudgell said Wednesday’s exonerations are “a timely reminder of the huge harm done to the lives of innocent, hardworking members of the community, and why it is so important we get to the complete truth”.

The decision came on the day the three-day hearing of former Post Office boss Paula Vennells began. Speaking publicly for the first time in almost ten years, Vennells broke down as she was questioned over the scandal, saying her previous assertion that there had been no failed Horizon prosecutions was not correct.

In the most anticipated appearance of the long-running Post Office scandal inquiry, Vennells was questioned in a packed inquiry room with sub-postmasters and post-mistresses coming to watch her give evidence.