Horizon scandal: Former post office worker convicted of fraud cleared by Court Of Appeal

A former Post Office worker convicted of fraud has been cleared by the Court of Appeal
Rahmah Ghazali
By Rahmah Ghazali
13th Feb 2024, 2:28pm
Post Office clerk Jacqueline Falcon (left), whose fraud conviction has been overturned by the Court of Appeal in the light of the Horizon system debacle, pictured with her 17-year-old daughter Summer, near their home in Hadston, Northumberland. Tom Wilkinson/PA WirePost Office clerk Jacqueline Falcon (left), whose fraud conviction has been overturned by the Court of Appeal in the light of the Horizon system debacle, pictured with her 17-year-old daughter Summer, near their home in Hadston, Northumberland. Tom Wilkinson/PA Wire
Post Office clerk Jacqueline Falcon (left), whose fraud conviction has been overturned by the Court of Appeal in the light of the Horizon system debacle, pictured with her 17-year-old daughter Summer, near their home in Hadston, Northumberland. Tom Wilkinson/PA Wire

A former Post Office worker convicted of fraud nearly 10 years ago has been cleared by the Court of Appeal. Jacqueline Falcon, 42, was accused of reversing transactions on the faulty Horizon accounting software between December 2014 and February 2015 while working at Hadston Post Office in Northumberland.

The ex-Post Office clerk had been attempting to cover up a £933.69 shortfall in the branch’s accounts which she had not taken and could not explain, but feared would be deducted from her wages, the court heard.

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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.

At a hearing 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 her conviction was overturned.

Post Office clerk Jacqueline Falcon (left), whose fraud conviction has been overturned by the Court of Appeal in the light of the Horizon system debacle, pictured with her 17-year-old daughter Summer, near their home in Hadston, Northumberland. Tom Wilkinson/PA WirePost Office clerk Jacqueline Falcon (left), whose fraud conviction has been overturned by the Court of Appeal in the light of the Horizon system debacle, pictured with her 17-year-old daughter Summer, near their home in Hadston, Northumberland. Tom Wilkinson/PA Wire
Post Office clerk Jacqueline Falcon (left), whose fraud conviction has been overturned by the Court of Appeal in the light of the Horizon system debacle, pictured with her 17-year-old daughter Summer, near their home in Hadston, Northumberland. Tom Wilkinson/PA Wire

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

Ms Falcon was a former parish councillor in the village of Hadston, Northumberland for 15 years. But in 2015, she was arrested in front of her children, taken to a police station, swabbed, finger-printed and had her mugshot taken after she reversed transactions to cover up a missing £1,000 that she had not stolen.

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She was prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service, not the Post Office like many postmasters, and the CPS indicated it would not have brought the case against her had it known about Horizon’s major flaws, as it would not have been in the public interest.

Ms Falcon said: “I have spent the last nine years with depression, I don’t like to go out alone, I feel everyone is looking at me. It has had a massive effect on me and my family.

“I don’t feel I have been the best mam to them because I have not been myself for such a long time. I am hoping that a weight will have been lifted and I can gradually get my old self back.”

Related topics:FraudPost OfficeLondon

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