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Mr bates v the Post Office


Technically the crown?
The CPS had the right to intervene in these private convictions if they wanted to.

It looks like case were referred to them and they agreed in all but one case to affirm a conviction.

The buck stops with the leader of the CPS.
 
'The senior execs at Post Office Ltd were given huge bonuses on the back of securing 'recoveries' from these poor subpostmasters. Then they got further bonuses at the conclusion of the inquiry for cooperating - even though it was a legal requirement to cooperate and the inquiry isn't even closed yet. Vennells alone got £170k in bonuses linked to the whole Horizon issue.

What's more, the auditors/investigators were also given targets to achieve successful cases against subpostmasters (and given bonuses for meeting/exceeding those targets). No wonder they were so keen!'

but starmeh though...
 
the Crown Prosecution Service act on behalf of the crown, the clue's in the name.
I'm no fan of Starmer but the CPS don't decide the outcome of legal cases, they decide whether a prosecution is in the public interest etc. To be honest, the claim that someone is robbing the Post Office blind is unlikely to be overlooked. A serious enough claim to ask the courts to decide rather than leave it to some senior legal official in the CPS. The fact that the courts got it so wrong is the big deal ...
 

The CPS had the right to intervene in these private convictions if they wanted to.

It looks like case were referred to them and they agreed in all but one case to affirm a conviction.

The buck stops with the leader of the CPS.
They have the right to intervene if and when informed; if you know the legal process, mostly the Post Office prosecuted and informed later.

When we’re talking about public prosecutions, the CPS will have known and proceeded, but not to defend them entirely…

… we now know that the PO clearly misconstrued or lied about the evidence they had. Let’s not lose sight who are primarily to blame.
 
They have the right to intervene if and when informed; if you know the legal process, mostly the Post Office prosecuted and informed later.

When we’re talking about public prosecutions, the CPS will have known and proceeded, but not to defend them entirely…

… we now know that the PO clearly misconstrued or lied about the evidence they had. Let’s not lose sight who are primarily to blame.
It was one of THE major cases of the day. I doubt very much that they needed to be informed about these cases. Hundreds were being pursued by the P.O. on Starmer's watch. And the CPS did have the power to intervene and quash these convictions at any time.

Rather, cases were placed in the in-tray at the CPS and the convictions were regarded by them as safe. The CPS are currently looking at just how many of them were referred to them. There's more to come on this.
 
"‌In 2012, the CPS, according to evidence submitted to the public inquiry by Della Robinson, a sub-postmistress wrongly convicted, 'told me that if I pleaded guilty to false accounting, they would not pursue me for the money and would drop the theft charge. I then chose to do this'”.

That was on Starmer's watch. It's completely fanciful to believe that case and others - given the high profile of the convictions back then which was receiving political push back btw - wouldn't have been discussed by Starmer who was the DPP at the time.
 

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