Anne Nield

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Annie Nield was one of the “Post Office 39,” a group of former sub-postmasters and post-mistresses who were convicted of offences including theft, false accounting, and fraud, based on information from a computer system called Horizon which suggested that money had gone missing from post-office branch accounts.

On 11th April 2013, Ms. Nield and another defendant, Ms. Sefton, both pleaded guilty to one count of false accounting, which they were jointly charged. The indictment shortfall was £34,115. Ms. Nield and Ms. Sefton tried to repay the shortages with their own credit cards, and holiday money, before covering up the shortages by delaying the processing of business deposits. Ms. Nield was sentenced to 5 months’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months. Also, she was subjected to a 12-month supervision requirement and a requirement to complete 20 sessions on the Women’s Turn Around programme.

The basis of each of the prosecutions of the “Post Office 39” was that money missing from the branch account had been a result of theft by the sub-postmaster or mistress, or had been covered up by fraud or false accounting by the sub-postmaster or mistress. On appeal, the Court of Appeal accepted findings that bugs, errors, and defects in Horizon could, and did, cause discrepancies and shortfalls in branch accounts. The court concluded that if the Horizon data was not reliable then there was no basis for the prosecution, and the convictions were quashed. The court noted that failures of investigation and disclosure in the cases prevented the appellants from challenging, or challenging effectively, the reliability of the Horizon data.

As a result of the case, at 60, Ms. Nield was bankrupt, unemployed for the first time in her life and described being ‘brought to her knees.’

View Press (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)

View Press (www.postofficescandal.uk)

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