Sixth Scottish sub-postmaster cleared of wrongdoing

Aleid Kloosterhuis had her conviction quashed.

A sub-postmistress convicted during the IT Horizon scandal has been cleared after a Post Office investigator's evidence was found to be "misleading".

Aleid Kloosterhuis was convicted of embezzlement at Campbeltown Sheriff Court in 2012.

Appeal judges in Edinburgh quashed her conviction after the Crown Office said it would not oppose her appeal.

She is the sixth sub-postmaster or mistress based in Scotland to be cleared of criminal wrongdoing.

Ms Kloosterhuis was sentenced to 12 months in prison, the only one of the original six to be jailed.

• What is the Post Office scandal?

• How do the Post Office scandal compensation schemes work?

• Can scheme to quash Post Office convictions work?

The Horizon scandal has been described as the most widespread British miscarriage of justice in modern times.

More than 700 post office branch managers across the UK were prosecuted on the basis of the faulty IT system, designed by Fujitsu, which made it look like money was missing when it was not.

The Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh heard a Post Office investigator provided misleading information to the Crown Office about the amount of money Ms Kloosterhuis had admitted taking from her post office on the Isle of Gigha.

Scotland’s second most senior judge Lady Dorrian said the confessions "did not accord" with the amount the Horizon system said was taken and found that Ms Kloosterhuis had suffered a miscarriage of justice.

Jane MacNiven, Ms Kloosterhuis’ solicitor, said her client was delighted her convicted had been overturned: “She specifically wanted to thank everybody who had assisted her and supported her.

“It’s been really challenging for her, particularly since her release from prison back in 2013.

"It’s been a really difficult time for her and her family but I think she wants to now be able to put this chapter of her life behind her.”

Many Post Office victims admitted to crimes they did not commit during the scandal in the hope of avoiding prison.

The case was one of six referred to the High Court by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) in November 2022 over potential miscarriages of justice.

Ms Kloosterhuis is the final one of the original six to have their name cleared. A further two cases have been referred since then.

So far 17 applications have been made to the SCCRC to have convictions overturned in relation to Horizon.

In a letter to the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board last year the Crown Office said following the conclusion of the first tranche of six appeals it was “anticipated that a streamlined and expedient process of review, appeal and disposal will be available for application to any future cases.”

It is not clear how many people in Scotland were wrongly convicted on the basis of the faulty IT system but it could be more than 50.

The UK and Scottish governments are working on legislation to exonerate those wrongly convicted.