Jailed post office staff must wait for appeal decision
Two former Shropshire post office workers who say they were wrongly jailed because of a computer glitch have been told they will have to wait until October to find whether they will be granted an appeal.
Tracy Felstead, from Telford, and Rubbina Shaheen, from Shrewsbury, have been told the decision has been delayed as a result of the Post Office's failed attempts to have a judge removed from a separate court hearing on the matter.
Miss Felstead, who is 37, and Mrs Shaheen, 54, are among 35 former post office workers seeking to have their convictions overturned.
Miss Felstead is also among 557 former post office staff involved in a group action against the Post Office.
They say the accounting shortfalls were caused by glitches with the Post Office's controversial Horizon computer system.
Miss Felstead was jailed for six months in 2001 after being convicted of stealing £11,500 when she was a 19-year-old counter clerk.
Mrs Shaheen was jailed for 12 months in 2010 for false accounting in relation to a £43,000 shortfall at Greenfields Post Office in Shrewsbury.
The CCRC, which is examining their cases, told them in a letter been forced to postpone its decision because of two failed attempts by the Post Office to remove a judge in a separate court hearing on the matter.
In addition to the CCRC investigation, a total of 557 former post office staff, including Miss Felstead, have lodged a group action which is being heard in the High Court in London.
The CCRC said it could not announce its decision until the judgment had been made on the second of the four trials making up the High Court Action.
But this judgment has been delayed after the Post Office twice tried to get Mr Justice Fraser removed as trial judge.
The Post Office also appealed against his judgment in the first trial, which found in favour of the staff, but the application was rejected.
The CCRC's annual report said it needed to take into account the outcome of the second High Court trial, but had been unable to do so because it had not yet been concluded.
"This was caused by an application by lawyers for the Post Office attempting to have the judge recuse himself from those proceedings."
Mrs Shaheen's husband Mohamed said the delay was 'frustrating'.
The third trial, originally due to begin in November, is now expected to start in March next year.
The Post Office has also been ordered to pay £5.5 million towards the claimants' costs relating to the first trial.
The Post Office insisted there was not a problem with the Horizon system and it had confidence in it.
“We have confidence in Horizon, which is robust, reliable and used across 11,500 branches by postmasters, agents and their many thousands of staff to process millions of transactions successfully every day, including on behalf of the UK’s high street banks,” it said.
The case continues.
