Post Office case to resume after judge rejects 'bias' claim

The Hon Mr Justice Fraser had been hearing claims by 557 post office workers that they had been blamed for accounting shortfalls caused by a glitch in the company's computer system.

Among them are Tracy Felstead from Telford, who is seeking to clear her name after being jailed for stealing more than £11,000.

The Post Office accused Judge Fraser of bias after he found in the workers' favour in the first of four trials, and made a formal application for him to stand down and allow another judge to be appointed.

The judge rejected the application after a hearing last week, saying there was no evidence to back up its claims.

The Post Office now says it intends to appeal against the decision.

Miss Felstead,of Bournside Drive, Telford, was a 19-year-old counter clerk at a post office in London when she was sentenced to six months in prison in 2001.

The case in the High Court has been brought about by the Justice for the Subpostmasters Alliance, a campaign group set up to represent the post office workers.

Also trying to clear her name is Rubbina Shaheen, who kept Greenfields Post Office in Shrewsbury before being jailed for 12 months in 2010 for false accounting. She is not involved in the High Court hearing but, like Miss Felstead, is seeking to have her conviction overturned by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

In the first trial, which examined the contractual relationship between the Post Office and sub-postmasters, the judge ruled in favour of the workers.

He found the company guilty of “oppressive behaviour” in demanding sums of money that could not be accounted for by sub-postmasters.

The Post Office, which said it would also appeal against some of the judge's findings from the first trial, argued that the first judgment prejudiced the later hearings.

In his ruling to dismiss the Post Office claim, Judge Fraser said he found no apparent bias in any event.

"However, even were I to have concluded that point to the contrary, and found that there was sufficient to justify the Post Office's application for recusal, I consider the delay, and the continued conducting of the Horizon Issues trial, including both the cross-examination of all of the claimants' witnesses of fact, and the calling of almost all of the Post Office's own witnesses of fact, to constitute an unequivocal waiver of any right the Post Office might have had to ask me to abandon the Horizon Issues trial and recuse myself from further involvement as the managing judge," he said.

The second trial, which looks at the Post Office's Horizon computer system itself, is now due to resume later today.

Miss Felstead and Mrs Shaheen both say that the financial discrepancies were caused by a glitch in the system.

The Post Office says it has confidence in Horizon, which it says is robust, reliable and used across 11,500 branches everyday.