THE OTHER POST OFFICE SCANDAL
Steve Marston, 42, emptied his £23K savings to cover missing money.
@PostOffice repaid his loyalty with a criminal record, and almost 30 years later it is still fighting him.
Steve Marston ran the Heap Bridge branch in Bury from 1973 and never had trouble with paper accounts. In 1996 an area manager pressured him into using new software called Capture, the system that came before Horizon. He says auditors told him Capture does not make mistakes, a brave claim about software from 1996.
Shortfalls of £5K to £10K kept appearing. He paid the gaps from his savings and inflated his weekly cash figures to balance the books. Auditors then turned up unannounced, closed the branch, left him out of the audit and told him it was all his responsibility, which certainly speeds things up.
On advice that pleading guilty would keep him out of prison, he pleaded guilty to theft and false accounting over an alleged £79K shortfall. He received 12 months probation, then bankruptcy, a new town for his family and the loss of his friends. Full service, with the bankruptcy included.
Steve Marston blamed himself for 25 years, which was very convenient for everyone else. Then a government review by Kroll found a reasonable likelihood that Capture caused shortfalls. On 27 March 2026 the Criminal Cases Review Commission sent his case to the Court of Appeal, saying there is a real possibility his prosecution was an abuse of process.
Post Office chairman Nigel Railton told MPs on the Business and Trade Committee in January that all Capture convictions should be overturned by law. The chairman wants them all overturned, so naturally the Post Office is contesting all three pre-Horizon cases sent to the Court of Appeal, according to
@ComputerWeekly and Karl Flinders
@Karlfl.
@SkyNews reports it also sought a two month delay in Steve Marston's case, which shows real respect for a 70 year old's time, and the court refused. Nigel Railton later wrote that the Post Office must concede or oppose, with no third way, and that evidence unrelated to Capture may keep these convictions safe. Christopher Hodges, who chairs the Horizon Compensation Advisory Board, replied that the conflict of interest is blatant, since the Post Office was the original prosecutor.
The Post Office says it is only assisting the court, with remarkable energy. Neil Hudgell of Hudgell Solicitors, who represents many Capture victims, says the Post Office hides behind an unnamed spokesperson. Steve Marston asks how taxpayers' money can compensate victims and also pay the Post Office to fight those clearing their names.
The government owns the Post Office, and a minister told the Lords the Post Office was the original prosecutor in a Capture case, so the Department for Business and Trade can relax. Ownership clearly comes with no responsibilities.
Steve Marston is 70 and the Post Office is in no hurry.
