The son of a Post Office subpostmaster will appeal against his conviction for stealing £35,000 more than a decade ago.
More than 700 Post Office branch managers around the UK were prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 after faulty Horizon accounting software made it look as though money was missing from their shops, with many convictions subsequently being overturned.
About 100 subpostmasters in Scotland were convicted after they were wrongly accused of embezzling money in the scandal, and First Minister Humza Yousaf has pledged to get “justice” for those involved.
The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) referred cases to the High Court over potential miscarriages of justice.
At the Appeal Court in Edinburgh, Ravinder Naga challenged a conviction for stealing £35,000 from the Post Office where his mother worked in Greenock, Inverclyde.
READ MORE: Constance: ‘Extremely disappointing’ Scotland not included in Horizon law
He was given 300 hours’ community service in February 2010 after pleading guilty at Greenock Sheriff Court, where it was said that charges against Mr Naga’s mother had been dropped after the pair attended a police station and he gave a voluntary interview.
Mr Naga has lodged an appeal against the conviction, with a hearing set to go ahead on April 24.
Advocate Depute Brian Gill KC told the court: “My understanding is that the exercise, which was a lengthy exercise in previous appeals, won’t take more than a week.”
He said an appeal could be set for 14 days, and added: “The Crown’s position is that this is the most difficult appeal so far.”
Representing the Post Office, Gerry Moynihan KC said: “The petition is not opposed. The Advocate Depute is correct.”
The judge, Lady Dorrian, set a procedural hearing for April 24.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel