Former Fleetwood sub-postmaster has conviction quashed amid Horizon IT scandal

A Fleetwood man was one of six Post Office workers who had their convictions quashed amid the Horizon IT scandal, lawyers have said.

Thomas Mulhall ran the town’s Lord Street branch and pleaded guilty to a count of fraud by false representation in December 2012 at Fleetwood Magistrates’ Court. 

He was sentenced to a one-year community order obliging him to do 100 hours of unpaid work and told to pay £2,408 in costs.

He had his conviction overturned on Wednesday at a Southwark Crown Court hearing which took place at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London.

Sushma Blaggan, Assad Alli, Marion Chapman, Kimberly Connors and Seema Rahman also had their convictions overturned.

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Solicitor Neil Hudgell said Wednesday’s exonerations were “a timely reminder of the huge harm done to the lives of innocent, hardworking members of the community, and why it is so important we get to the complete truth”.

He continued: “Depending upon how quickly the Government is able to progress its pledge to exonerate all who were prosecuted using Horizon-based evidence, and how that is eventually done, these may be some of the last people to go through the conviction appeals process and to have their day in court where their case is individually considered, and their names ultimately cleared.”

Mrs Blaggan attended the nearby inquiry shortly after her theft conviction from 2004 was quashed to see former Post Office boss Paula Vennells give evidence.

Former subpostmaster Mrs Blaggan, 62, ran Dale Acre Post Office in Litherland, Merseyside, and was convicted over an unexplained shortfall of £8,000.

She was ordered to carry out 240 hours of community service.

After the hearing, her husband, Narrinder Blaggan, said: “For Sushma to have appeared in court two decades after being wrongfully prosecuted, and for an inquiry only to be hearing from Ms Vennells as to what went wrong on the very same day, just shows how badly subpostmasters have been let down.”

He continued: “Sushma was destroyed by what happened to her.

“When she was first suspended she tried to commit suicide, and then she did so again after she had been convicted.”

Mr Blaggan, now 58, was also suspended from running a Post Office in Liverpool due to an unexplained shortfall in accounts and was made to sell the branch and re-mortgage his home.

He continued: “It destroyed our lives. This should have been prevented, and certainly justice should have been done for subpostmasters much quicker than this.

“We should have had answers and the full truth long ago, so we wanted to attend the inquiry today to see if Ms Vennells would give us that.”

Both Mr and Mrs Blaggan are expected to make bids for compensation from the Post Office.

Ms Connors, who worked at the St Austell Post Office in Cornwall, pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud in May 2009, and was handed a suspended prison sentence of 50 weeks.

Ms Rahman admitted making a false entry into the Horizon system in September 2012 and was originally sentenced to 250 hours of unpaid work, which was reduced to 90 on appeal.

The cases were referred by the Criminal Cases Review Commission in April.