Three former Post Office solicitors were recommended to be reported to the SRA for their roles in prosecuting sub-postmasters in 2020, it emerged today.
A report by external lawyers from instructed firm Peters & Peters stated that the conduct of Jarnail Singh, Rob Wilson and Juliet McFarlane was capable of amounting to a ‘serious breach’ of SRA rules. This was due to the ‘nature and number of prosecution cases referred for appeal’ and a review of material available at the time.
The public inquiry into the scandal of hundreds of people being wrongly accused and convicted heard that the Post Office had been invited by counsel to report the trio to the SRA.
Singh, Wilson and McFarlane all worked in the Post Office criminal law team between 1999 and 2013.
The report cited potential issues over ‘inadequate investigation, including a failure to pursue all reasonable lines of inquiry whether they pointed towards or away from the guilt of the defendant and [a failure] to establish that an actual financial loss had occurred in theft cases’.
The report also found evidence of material non-disclosure, in particular about the reliability of the Post Office Horizon IT system, and ‘inadequate, negligent or improper decision-making’ in relation to charging decisions.
The report said the three lawyers’ conduct involved ‘attaching improper weight in decision-making to the financial/commercial interests of [Post Office Limited]’ and ‘pressuring’ sub-postmasters to make good losses for which they were not necessarily liable. There was said to be a failure, in false accounting cases, to have any regard for the cause of underlying shortfalls. Theft charges were added ‘with a view to pressuring defendants to plead guilty to lesser offences’.
No allegations of misconduct have been brought by the SRA against any solicitor in relation to the Post Office scandal, although the regulator is a core participant in the inquiry.
Wilson gave evidence to the inquiry today. The hearing continues.
