Seema Misra, of Indian descent, wrongly imprisoned in UK while 8 weeks pregnant

Seema Misra, now 47, had her conviction quashed in April 2021. The Court of Appeal ruled that she had been wrongly imprisoned over 12 years ago after being accused of stealing GBP 75,000 from her Post Office branch in Surrey, where she was the sub-postmistress. During Thursday’s hearings for the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry in London, former Post Office Managing Director David Smith apologized for a congratulatory email he sent after Ms. Misra’s conviction.

He expressed regret for causing substantial distress and apologized to Ms. Misra and her family for the email. Ms. Misra, however, rejected the apology, stating that no one came to apologize when her conviction was overturned. She highlighted the impact on her family, particularly her youngest son, and the lack of apology at that time.

She recounted her experience of being pregnant and serving time in prison and expressed her disapproval of being used as a “test case” for the faulty Horizon IT accounting system. The UK government, which owns Post Office Ltd, has paid out millions in compensation to hundreds of sub-postmasters, many of Indian heritage, impacted by the faulty Horizon software. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged action in the historic scandal which falsely accused sub-postmasters of fraud.

A new law introduced in Parliament, the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill, aims to provide a blanket exoneration to quash convictions brought about by erroneous Horizon evidence. A public inquiry on the case is currently underway and expected to conclude in July. The Horizon system, developed by Fujitsu, was first rolled out in 1999 to some post offices for various tasks, including accounting and stocktaking.