Campbeltown subpostmistress suffered 'miscarriage of justice' in Horizon scandal as conviction overturned

A former subpostmistress previously accused of embezzling funds as a result of an IT system fault has had her wrongful conviction quashed.

Aleid Kloosterhuis, 64, was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment after she pleaded guilty at Campbeltown Sheriff Court in 2012 to one charge of embezzlement.

Her case was one of six referred to the High Court by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) in November 2022 over potential “miscarriages of justice”.

Her conviction was quashed at an Appeal Court hearing in Edinburgh on Thursday, a court official confirmed.

Ravinder Naga is also appealing against conviction and the case was continued to a procedural hearing in April.

More than 700 Post Office branch managers around the UK were prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 after faulty Horizon accounting software made it look as though money was missing from their shops.

Over 70 Scots workers were forced to pay out thousands to the Post Office because of an issue with the Horizon programme.

When referring the cases to the High Court in 2022, the SCCRC concluded those who had pleaded guilty did so in circumstances that were, or could be said to be, clearly prejudicial to them.

The Scottish Government is working on legislation to exonerate those wrongly convicted in the Horizon scandal.