Former Catterick subpostmaster cleared in court
It was one of 39 rulings overturned by the court of appeal
Last updated 23rd Apr 2021
A former post office subpostmaster from Catterick has been cleared of false accounting by the Court of Appeal.
Tim Burgess was convicted in 2011, after faults with the Post Office's Horizon accounting system.
His was one of 39 convictions to be quashed this morning (23 April).
Their cases were referred to the court by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) last year following a landmark High Court case against the Post Office.
"We'd killed the village"
Tim was ordered to complete 120 hours of community service after being convicted, and it meant he couldn't progress into more senior roles in his career.
He told us there were consequences in the community, too.
He said: "I just felt what turns out now to be a misplaced guilt. We'd killed the village. The post office was gone and it was my fault.
"People thought that, and that's what we had to live with.
"There a few snide comments, you just felt people's animosity towards you. That's all subsided now and everything's alright, but for a while it wasn't pleasant. It wasn't pleasant at all."
"Failures of investigation"
Announcing the court’s ruling, Lord Justice Holroyde said the Post Office “knew there were serious issues about the reliability of Horizon” and had a “clear duty to investigate” the system’s defects.
But the Post Office “consistently asserted that Horizon was robust and reliable” and “effectively steamrolled over any subpostmaster who sought to challenge its accuracy”, the judge added.
The Court of Appeal also allowed the appeals on the basis that their prosecutions were an affront to justice.
Lord Justice Holroyde, sitting with Mr Justice Picken and Mrs Justice Farbey, said: “Post Office Limited’s failures of investigation and disclosure were so egregious as to make the prosecution of any of the ‘Horizon cases’ an affront to the conscience of the court.”
"It's a happy day!"
Tim now wants an inquiry to take place, as he claims the full story isn't out in the open yet.
"It needs a judge-led public inquiry and for people to be put under oath, and have to testify, and tell the truth.
"I've had a few people apologise to me, for - not how they treated me - but what they thought of me.
"You just move on, it's done now, it's all over the news. And my name's been cleared, so yeah, it's a happy day!"