A former Post Office worker wrongly convicted of fraud during the Horizon scandal has been cleared by the Court of Appeal.

Jacqueline Falcon, 42, was accused of reversing transactions on the faulty accounting software between December 2014 and February 2015 while working at Hadston Post Office in Northumberland.

The former Post Office clerk had been trying to cover up a shortfall of almost £1,000 in the branch’s accounts which she had not taken and could not explain and was worried the missing amount would be deducted from her pay, the court heard.

She was handed a three-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to pay £933.69 in compensation after pleading guilty to fraud at Newcastle Crown Court in 2015.

In London on Tuesday, senior judges ruled her conviction was unsafe because Post Office failures meant her trial was unfair.

Ms Falcon, from Hadston, watched via video-link as the ruling was made.

The Crown Prosecution Service, which had brought the fraud case against her, did not oppose her appeal.

Fujitsu ‘to have received £3.4bn in Treasury-linked deals active since 2019’ despite role in Post Office scandal

Post Office scandal: New concerns raised over second IT system used in branches

Ex-Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells to give evidence at inquiry into Horizon IT scandal

The scandal , thought to be the biggest miscarriage of justice in British history, saw hundreds of subpostmasters and subpostmistresses wrongly held responsible for accounting errors in the faulty software.

Between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 were prosecuted, causing many to lose their jobs, livelihoods and reputations.

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But the affair was largely ignored by the wider public until it was exposed by the ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office.

Fujitsu, the company behind Horizon, was still winning government-linked business, even after its role in the scandal became clear.

Last weekend, MPs said the company is set to have received more than £3.4bn through contracts from Treasury-linked organisations since 2019.

Read more:
Ex Post Office boss to give evidence
New concerns raised over second IT system used in branches
Concerns over another Post Office IT system
Post Office chairman ousted amid row with government

The international tech firm, which is under intense scrutiny, was awarded around £1.4bn worth of deals since a 2019 High Court ruling concluding there had been numerous bugs and errors in its Horizon IT system.

More than £2bn worth of contracts were agreed before 2019 and remained active in the following period, the Commons Treasury Committee said.

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