When Hash Shingadia was convicted in 2011, his case caught the eye of the tabloids. “Royal wedding guest admits fraud” screamed one headline – a reference to the fact he had attended William and Kate’s recent wedding. It was one of many humiliations that resulted from his conviction for a crime that he did not commit.
But it was also a turning point.
The story caught the eye of another sub-postmaster who’d also been wrongly convicted by the Post Office. He made contact and this eventually led Hash to Alan Bates (now immortalised in the ITV series Mr Bates v The Post Office), who had set up the Justice for Sub-Postmasters Alliance two years earlier and through whom he learned his story was all too common.
It wasn’t until 2019, when the 555 sub-postmasters successfully sued the Post Office in a class action in the High Court, that Hash found out there was any possibility that he might get justice. His solicitor called to say that the criminal appeals were being handled by a new firm, Hudgells. Hash called them soon after and told them his story.
Miraculously he still had his file with all the details of his case: the Horizon irregularities, the records of calls made to the Horizon helpline, the meetings with auditors. He sent the file up to Hudgells and 18 months later found himself sitting in the Court of Appeal on a hot July afternoon to hear Mr. Justice Holroyde quash his conviction. To this day, he becomes emotional when he describes that moment.
It is hard to listen to Hash describe the impact all this had on his life and that of his family. The shame of the conviction, the humiliation of his community sentence, and the debt he accrued in the process. And how the village of Bucklebury stood by him through it all. When I first raised the plight of the postmasters in Parliament three years ago, I described at as “the most serious miscarriage of justice in legal history”. I stand by that.
Last week the Prime Minister announced that the Government would be introducing emergency legislation to overturn the wrongful conviction of hundreds of affected sub postmasters. This intervention is highly irregular but in these unique circumstances, it is necessary. The Court of Appeal have made clear that they will consider an appeal if the appellant can establish a link to Horizon. But since the first convictions took place in 1999, many no longer have any records of their involvement with the Post Office. Unlike Hash, they cannot prove the link.
As a Justice Minister I have been working with the Justice Secretary Alex Chalk on the wording of the law that will cover all the 900 or so affected sub-postmasters. When it is published shortly this will lead to an immediate quashing of their convictions and accelerate their pathway to compensation. It is no less than they deserve for this grave stain on our legal history.