Kathleen Crane had endured an ‘appalling experience’ after being wrongly convicted of fraud as part of the Post Office scandal.
A former subpostmistress who was convicted of fraud based on evidence from the Post Office’s faulty Horizon IT system has had her conviction quashed by the Court of Appeal.
Kathleen Crane was handed a 12-month community order and ordered to repay more than £18,000 she was accused of taking from her branch in Eastbourne, East Sussex, when she was sentenced for fraud in 2010.
She was one of hundreds of postmasters who were convicted after the Post Office’s defective Horizon accounting system produced figures which suggested money was missing at their branches.
At a hearing in London on Thursday, three appeal judges ruled that there was “no doubt” that Mrs Crane’s conviction was unsafe, adding that she was “kept in ignorance” over Horizon’s defects.
Giving their judgment, Lord Justice Holroyde said: “We have no doubt that her prosecution was an abuse of process.
“Nor do we have any doubt that her conviction is unsafe.”
Mother-of-two Mrs Crane, 68, attended Thursday’s hearing and wept when her conviction was quashed.
Flora Page, representing her in court, said that Mrs Crane had “suffered in silence” since her “appalling experience”, adding that a “fraud she had not committed brought its own humiliation”.
She said: “She is somewhat overcome with the prospect of clearing her name.
“She works in a care home and she will no longer have to contend, we hope, with the fact that this conviction comes up every year when they do their enhanced checks.
“It will close a very long and painful chapter in Mrs Crane’s blameless life.”
