Former Hogsthorpe postmaster accused of theft by Post Office due to faulty IT system has conviction overturned

A former Hogsthorpe postmaster says he can't wait to take his grandchildren to Disney World after having a conviction of theft from the Post Office overturned.
Tom Hedges celebrating with  a bottle of Prosecco outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London.Tom Hedges celebrating with  a bottle of Prosecco outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
Tom Hedges celebrating with a bottle of Prosecco outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

Thomas Hedges was one of dozens of wrongly accused postmasters, who had travelled to the Royal Courts of Justice on Friday for the decision.

More than 700 sub-postmasters were prosecuted between 2000 and 2014 after a bug in the computer system Horizon led to financial shortfalls in branch accounts.

Some had been imprisoned for crimes they never committed. Mr Hedges lost his job at the age of 57, the respect of a village he loved and was ordered to pay £1,000 costs. He and his wife eventually moved from Hogsthorpe to Chapel St Leonards.

A key victory against the Post Office and the controversial Horizon IT accounting software they were forced to use came in December 2019 when Mr Hedges and the other postmasters who were wrongly accused were vindicated.

A settlement of £58m for 550 sub-postmasters had since been agreed, but most of that money went on legal costs and funders.

Friday's decision came after nearly 10 years of trauma, heartache, worry and huge financial loss.

In what has been reported around the world as the biggest miscarriage of justice in British history, the nation watched Mr Hedges on television standing in the sunshine outside court, cracking open a bottle of Prosecco.

Mr Hedges, who was accompanied to court by his daughter, Rebecca, told the Skegness Standard: "When I told my 93-year-old mother that I was going to attend the Appeal Court in person to hear the judgement handed down, I had already been told unofficially that it was in my favour.

"She told me to take her bank card down to Aldi and buy some Prosecco to celebrate with.

"She said 'no getting champagne, remember your name is Hedges not Rothschild!'

"Dear old mum!"

After he was vindicated, he told the Standard the accusation had almost made him and his wife bankrupt.

"At the time many of our customers said they believed us but others who we had considered friends snubbed us and crossed the road rather than speak to us," he said.

“In the end we moved away from the village. To those who did not believe I was innocent, I want to say, ‘You were wrong’."

Commenting on Friday's decision, he said: "I feel immense relief and great happiness to finally have my conviction quashed.

"I have been feeling pretty good since we won our original court case in December 2019 and the Skegness Standard ran a story headlined 'Local Postmaster Vindicated'.

"It is the cream on the cake to finally have the stain washed away. I will be applying for a new DBS check, safe in the knowledge it will say nothing.

"I could even take my grandchildren to Disneyland in Florida, something I have been barred from, since my conviction. The USA will not allow people with criminal convictions into their country, even for a holiday.

"That, of course, is dependent on what happens next with my case against PO for malicious prosecution and the level of compensation I get.

"If I get a decent payment, I hope to be back in a position to buy my retirement bungalow and live a financially comfortably retirement.

"That is what I always planned for, before the PO trashed my life."

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