'How do they sleep at night?' Sub-postmistress has conviction quashed

A FORMER sub-postmistress convicted of fraud based on evidence from the Post Office's faulty accounting system wept as she was cleared by the Court of Appeal yesterday.

- Paul Jeeves

Kathleen Crane, 68, was one of more than 700 sentenced between 1999 and 2015 after defective Fujitsu software suggested money was missing from their branches.

The mother of two said her 14-year ordeal, in which she "suffered in silence", was "horrible" after being handed a 12-month community order and ordered to repay more than £18,000 in 2010.

Unsafe

Daughter Katy Crane, who joined her mum at court alongside sister Lucy, said afterwards: "I don't know how they [the Post Office] sleep at night. I absolutely think someone should serve jail time. Somebody needs to be held to account." Three appeal judges ruled there was "no doubt" that Kathleen's conviction was unsafe, adding that she was "kept in ignorance" over the Horizon system's defects.