A Post Office investigator involved in the Horizon computer scandal provided “misleading information” to prosecutors which was used to secure the wrongful conviction of former Gigha subpostmistress Aleid Kloosterhuis, a court has been told.
Aleid Kloosterhuis, 64, was given a 12-month prison sentence in 2012 after pleading guilty at Campbeltown Sheriff Court to embezzling £20,000 from her work place on the isle of Gigha.
A hearing on today at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh, declared that Ms Kloosterhuis had suffered a miscarriage of justice.
Appeal judges quashed her conviction after senior prosecutor Ruth Charteris KC - the solicitor general - indicated the Crown would not oppose her appeal.
The Crown took the position because it had learned that the circumstances surrounding Ms Kloosterhuis’s investigation had compromised the prosecution against her. This resulted in her conviction being unsafe.
Lady Dorrian, who sat with her colleagues Lord Matthews and Lord Armstrong, spoke with Ms Charteris about what happened in the case against Ms Kloosterhuis.
She spoke of how Ms Kloosterhuis made “admissions” about the sums she had taken to a post office investigator.
However, the sum that Ms Kloosterhuis spoke of was less than the sum the Horizon computer system said was stolen.
The investigator assigned to cover the case then told prosecutors that Ms Kloosterhuis had admitted to taking the full £20,000.
Lady Dorrian, Scotland’s second most senior judge, said: “These certain admissions do not accord to the amount that the Horizon system says was missing - there were significantly less.
“The post office investigator also provided misleading information to prosecutors to the effect that Ms Kloosterhuis made full admissions to the missing sum.”
The revelations emerged during the latest hearing involving the impact of the Horizon scandal in Scotland.
Since last year, the appeal court has been dealing with a number of past prosecutions which have been sent to it by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission
The body investigates potential miscarriages of justices and it believed that issues surrounding six sub-postmasters should be looked at by appeal judges.
The six were entitled to appeal against the convictions for crimes of dishonesty arising from their roles as sub-postmasters at the Post Office.
Between 2000 and 2014, more than 700 sub-postmasters were falsely prosecuted based on information from the Post Office’s computerised accounting and sales system, Horizon.
Since then, many sub-postmasters in England have had their criminal convictions for theft, fraud and false accounting overturned.
The SCCRC referred the cases of Ms Kloosterhuis, 64, William Quarm (who was being represented posthumously, Susan Sinclair, 57, Colin Smith, 62, Judith Smith, 60, and Robert Thomson,63, to the appeal court in Scotland.
The SCCRC concluded that the five who pleaded guilty did so in circumstances that were, or could be said to be, clearly prejudicial to them.
It also concluded that new information about Horizon which has emerged since Mrs Sinclair’s trial, would have had a material bearing on a “critical issue” at her trial and may have explained why there was a shortfall of funds at the Post Office branch where she worked.
It found that the prosecution could be seen as oppressive because the absence of the relevant evidence rendered the trial unfair.
Susan Sinclair was convicted of one charge of embezzlement following a trial. Judith Smith pleaded guilty to one charge of fraud and William Quarm and the other three accused to one charge of embezzlement each.
Ms Sinclair was convicted in 2004, after a trial at Peterhead Sheriff Court, of one charge of embezzlement and was sentenced to 180 hours’ community service.
Robert Thomson pleaded guilty in 2004 at Alloa Sheriff Court, to one charge of embezzlement. He received 180 hours of community service and was fined £5,000. His conviction was quashed last week.
In 2009 Judith Smith pleaded guilty, at Selkirk Sheriff Court, to one charge of fraud and was admonished by the court.
Then in 2010 William Quarm pleaded guilty, at Lochmaddy Sheriff Court, to one charge of embezzlement and was given 150 hours community services.
The other two cases date from 2012, when Ms Kloosterhuis pleaded guilty at Campbeltown Sheriff Court to one charge of embezzlement and was sentenced to 12 months’ in jail.
In 2013, Colin Smith pleaded guilty at Dunfermline Sheriff Court to one charge of embezzlement and was ordered to do 180 hours of unpaid work.
At a hearing last year, prosecutor Richard Goddard KC told the court that the Crown would not oppose Ms Sinclair’s and Mr Quarm’s convictions from being quashed, which subsequently took place.
Earlier this year, appeal judges quashed the convictions of Mr Smith and Ms Smith administratively.
Ms Kloosterhuis moved with her family to the island in Argyll to take over the post office in 2010 which is also the local shop and petrol station.
She moved there from her home village of Terwispel in the Netherlands with her husband Rudi and her son Bennie, who was then aged 20.
Campbeltown Sheriff Court previously heard how she took money from the Post Office’s safe and was caught after a surprise visit by Post Office auditors.
A newspaper report of the case told how she admitted the theft, claiming she needed the money to pay bills.
Passing sentence, Sheriff Ruth Anderson said: “I accept you are a first offender and recognise you are an older woman. I also accept you’ve been through some difficult circumstances.
"Nevertheless, your embezzlement took place over a prolonged period of time.
"When you carried out the embezzlement, you were in a position of trust as a sub-postmistress of an island community.”
Ms Kloosterhuis spoke of health difficulties and of taking money from the “shop account” to balance a “bank account”.
However, prosecutors accepted that even with the admissions made by Ms Kloosterhuis, the prosecution against her had been compromised and declared her conviction as unsafe.
After the conviction was quashed, Ms Kloosterhuis said: "It is a truly unbelievable day for my family and I and we would like to thank everyone who has worked tirelessly on my case and those who have supported me throughout, particularly my legal team Jane MacNiven of E. Thornton & Co Solicitors, Fred MacIntosh K.C. and Gareth Reid.
"Words cannot express how delighted we are at the decision to overturn my conviction. I would like to thank the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission for referring my case. It has been a long and extremely challenging time for my family and I since I was released from prison in 2013 and I hope that I can now put this chapter behind me and finally move on to enjoy the rest of my life."
Ravinder Naga has been added to the cases being considered by the appeal court. The appeal will be heard later this year.
Lady Dorrian also said that the court would issue a statement of reasons explaining why a number of the sub-postmasters have had their convictions quashed “administratively”. This will be published later this year.
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