The statutory body agreed in July to refer the conviction of Capture software user Patricia Owen to appeal court
The statutory body agreed in July to refer the conviction of Capture software user Patricia Owen to appeal court
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has formally referred the first appeal against conviction of a Post Office Capture user to the Court of Appeal, months after deciding to do so.
The appeal involves the case of Patricia Owen, who died in 2003. She pleaded not guilty to the theft of £6,000, but in 1998 was convicted and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, at Canterbury Crown Court.
In July this year, it emerged that the CCRC had decided Owen’s case would be referred for appeal, but it did not do so until yesterday (15 October).
At the same time, the statutory body said that four appeals against convictions of former Capture users will not be referred, because the CCRC’s statutory test for referral had not been met.
“Unlike Mrs Owen’s case, four of these cases were determined by a committee of three commissioners not to raise a real possibility that the conviction would be overturned,” said the CCRC.
On the months it has taken to formally refer Owen’s case, the CCRC said: “There is always a period of time between a decision being made by a committee and the actual referral to the appellate court.
