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A FORMER sub-postmaster has been exonerated over the Post Office Horizon scandal.
Richard Ormerod, 79, was acquitted of three charges of fraud by false accounting, amounting to £31,097 following an unopposed appeal hearing at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday.
Mr Ormerod, whose wife Angela ran the sub Post Office in Summerhouse, near Darlington, was among hundreds of people convicted of various offences based on evidence from the faulty IT system used by the Post Office from 2000.
The couple ran the office from their home at Grove Cottage and prior to his court hearing in 2004 had kept books at the branch for 24 years.
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He was sentenced to a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £250 costs after pleading guilty at South Durham Magistrates’ Court in 2004.
He had also re-mortgaged his house to pay the missing money to Royal Mail.
He was acquitted of three charges on Thursday, along with Gillian Harrison, 69, who ran a post office in Stoke-on-Trent.
Despite his guilty pleas, Mr Ormerod had consistently denied taking any money.
Judge Deborah Taylor said on Thursday: “The court will allow the appeals. The convictions are quashed.
“Both Mr Ormerod and Mrs Harrison have been of good character throughout. It is a recognition and a public exoneration of you.”
Mr Ormerod thanked the judge, while Mrs Harrison burst into tears, as the pair were supported by loved ones in the public gallery.
Graeme Hall, representing the appellants, said the convictions had “plagued their lives for many years”.
Mr Ormerod said he could not believe that the hundreds of sub-postmasters convicted were all guilty and that it must have been the Horizon system all along.
“They were so heavy-handed at the top end, and they couldn’t bear to face the truth. Nothing will happen to them, they have just been allowed to carry on,” he added.
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Mrs Harrison said the ordeal had “destroyed” her life and those of her family, but that she now wants to look to the future and encourage others who were wrongly convicted to get justice.
“I think the Post Office is diseased and it needs eradicating,” she said.
“I just want people to come forward. It is important.”
Simon Baker QC, representing the Post Office, said: “Both are cases in which the convictions were predicated upon the Horizon computer system with which the court is now familiar.
“In both cases the Post Office does not oppose these appeals.”
Their convictions are the latest to be overturned after some 39 former sub-postmasters who were convicted and even jailed for theft, fraud and false accounting had their names cleared in April last year – some after fighting for nearly 20 years.
A total of 75 have now had their convictions overturned, with all but one of the original prosecutions brought by the Post Office.
Solicitor Neil Hudgell, of Hudgell Solicitors, the firm representing a total of 62 people who have now had their convictions quashed, said: “Each and every conviction overturned is a hugely important milestone.
“Each new case at court is as important as the very first because every case relates to lives ruined by the Post Office.
“Every sub-postmaster affected deserves their day in court to have their names and reputations cleared, but they also deserve so much more. They deserve offers of meaningful compensation, and soon.”
A Post Office spokesman said: “We are sincerely sorry for the impact of historical failures on the lives of the people affected.
“We continue to take extensive action to fully address the past and to ensure past shortcomings can never be repeated.
“We have undertaken fundamental reforms to rebuild trust and forge a new relationship with our current postmasters.”
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