A SUBPOSTMASTER who was convicted of embezzlement at Dunfermline Sheriff Court had his plea tendered under "prejudicial circumstances", a senior judge has ruled.

Back in 2013, Colin Smith plead guilty to embezzlement of £12,680.88 between March 2009 and July 2012 and was sentenced to a community payback order requiring him to do 180 hours of unpaid work.

His conviction was one of six Scottish cases quashed earlier this year amid the Horizon scandal and appeal court judge Lord Justice Clerk Lady Dorrian published a report this week explaining the reasons they were not contested.

Her report said Mr Smith had been as subpostmaster since 2003 and, after audits detected no significant problems in 2007, issued began in mid-2008.

"Mr Smith reported discrepancies to the Helpdesk in 2010 and 2011 but his concerns were dismissed," she stated. "To resolve discrepancies, he adjusted the snapshot to show that the shortfall was made up by cheque.

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"He initially pled not guilty and maintained that plea at a further two diets. The defence file noted that he wanted to “put matters behind him” and records admissions that he was taking money from the branch to keep the business afloat.

"He referred to financial difficulties the branch encountered in the criminal justice social work report."

Lady Dorrian said the case was a "clear" miscarriage of justice.

She continued: "In the case of Colin Smith there was very little in the way of an admission until the plea of guilty. Such admissions as had been made were shown to be factually inaccurate, and the Crown was entirely right to conclude that no reliance could be placed upon an admission which was demonstrably untrue.

"Mr Smith had repeatedly contacted the helpline to no avail. The case is again a clear one of miscarriage of justice.

"Mr Smith did write a cheque on the day of the audit but the Crown noted that the objective evidence now available supports his revised account, that he wrote that cheque because he was aware of the inexplicable shortfall which had been identified as mounting over a period of time.

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"We agree with the Crown that POL’s (Post Office Limited's) failure to disclose the Horizon problems in Mr Smith’s case either to him or the Crown is particularly egregious given what POL knew at the time when the prosecution was live."

Lady Dorrian said the Horizon cases "largely" spoke for themselves.

She added: "They are all cases in which the Horizon evidence was central to conviction, and come within the third specific ground identified by the SCCRC, that the Horizon system was so inherently unreliable that any conviction reliant upon evidence deriving from it must be viewed as tainted by unfairness. "