A postmaster who was supported by Princess Kate and her family after being wrongly convicted in the Post Office accounting scandal is demanding justice for all his colleagues yet to have their sentences quashed.
Hasmukh Shingadia, 63, who served the Middleton family at the Spar and Post Office in Upper Bucklebury, Berkshire, where Kate and her sister Pipa grew up, got a suspended sentence for false accounting in 2010.
But following a decade-long legal fight he had the conviction overturned and has now demanded justice for all those affected by the scandal - and accountability for those responsible for allowing it to happen.
“It’s just a wonderful day. 19 July, freedom day in more ways than one,” Mr Shingadia recalled of the day he had his name cleared at the Court of Appeal in 2021.
He added that he hoped the forthcoming public inquiry would mean those responsible for the scandal “face the consequences with the outcome of the inquiry, but first at the moment is just to relax and go back to our families”.
Mr Shingadia, a grandfather, would serve sweets to the princess and her sister and got an invitation from Kate to her 2011 wedding to Prince William, who he also served during the early years of the royal romance,
But just months later he was convicted of false accounting when the Horizon IT accounting system installed in his Post Office incorrectly showed £16,000 of discrepancies.
Mr Shingadia had his conviction overturned in 2021— (PA)
The Middletons attended a celebratory tea party at Bucklebury Memorial Hall after Mr Shingadia had his convictions quashed and the family “continued to come into my shop and spend money here,” he told The Sun.
“Even after Kate got engaged she’d still pop in. Not everybody did that and some locals shunned me,” he added. He urged Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, to exonerate all 736 sub-postmasters convicted from 2000-2015.
On Monday, three senior judges overturned the convictions of 12 people who were convicted based on evidence from the faulty IT system used by the Post Office from 2000.
It comes after 39 former subpostmasters who were convicted and even jailed for theft, fraud and false accounting had their names cleared in April – some after fighting for nearly 20 years.
The Prince and Princess of Wales— (Getty Images)
Lord Justice Holroyde and two other judges quashed the convictions of Robert Ambrose, Hasmukh Shingadia, John Armstrong, Tim Brentnall, Jerry Hosi, Gurdeep Singh Dhale, John Dickson, Abiodun Omotoso, Malcolm Watkins, Sami Sabet, Carina Price and Rizwan Manjra at the Court of Appeal on Monday.
The hundreds of people who ran Post Office branches were convicted of various offences during the period of time the system was being used.
The court also considered appeals brought by a further 19 subpostmasters on Monday, and gave directions as to how their cases should progress, with a further hearing not expected before November.
Solicitor Neil Hudgell, of Hudgell Solicitors, who represented the 12 cleared on Monday as well as 33 former subpostmasters who have cleared their names so far, said: “Today is another step forward in terms of maintaining the momentum and ensuring we continue to contest every unsafe conviction as a result of the Post Office using its faulty Horizon computer system to pursue prosecutions against decent, honest, law-abiding people.
“Once again we have been proud to represent a group of people here who did no wrong, who were bullied into admitting to crimes they had not committed, made to pay back large sums of money they had not taken and who saw their lives irreparably damaged as a result.
“This group again includes people who spent time in prison.
“Sadly, what happened to each individual and their families can never be reversed. That makes it all the more important for it to be recognised by the Post Office and the courts.”
On Wednesday postal minister Kevin Hollinrake said the government believes it has a “solution” to the Horizon scandal convictions and an announcement was “imminent”.
However, the minister refused to “speculate” as to whether an announcement might come as soon as Wednesday afternoon as he said a decision “has not been finalised”.
At Prime Minister’s Questions later on Wednesday, Mr Sunak confirmed a new law would be introduced so people wrongly convicted in the Horizon scandal are “swiftly exonerated and compensated”.
Speaking at PMQs today, Mr Sunak said the post office scandal is “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in this nation’s history” at PMQs today.
He added: “We will make sure the truth comes to light. We right the wrongs of the past.”
