A former Post Office investigator has maintained that a sub-postmaster who had his conviction quashed last year was guilty.
Raymond Grant, who was involved in the prosecution of William Quarm, has told the inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal that he believes Quarm should never have had his name cleared.
Quarm was found guilty in 2010 of embezzling funds at his Post Office branch on the Scottish island of North Uist.
He died two years later, after serving a community sentence, when he became “depressed and ashamed”. His wife Anne said that he pleaded guilty just “to try to keep out of prison”.
Raymond Grant was involved in the prosecution of sub-postmaster William Quarm in 2010
PA
More than a decade later, Quarm’s conviction was overturned in the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh.
However, Grant, who now works for the Salvation Army, told the inquiry that he still thinks Quarm stole the money, which amounted to an eye-watering £40,278.
Counsel to the Inquiry Jason Beer KC asked Grant: “Do you remain of the view that he's guilty of the crime?”
Grant replied: “Yes I do.”
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He told the inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal that he believes Quarm should never have had his name cleared
PA
Beer continued: “Despite the verdict of the High Court of Judiciary in Scotland?”, with Grant replying “Yes”.
The former Post Office investigator admitted on Wednesday that he only attended the inquiry after being given a section 21 notice by officers.
He said that he was too preoccupied with his charity work when asked why his witness statement was only two pages long, commenting that his “time was limited”.
Grant said that he had to conduct research “in my own personal time” and moaned about the hours of work he had to put into preparing his statement.
The Horizon IT scandal led to the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of sub-postmastersPOST OFFICEThe inquiry heard that Grant first interviewed Quarm a month after the sub-poster was accused of embezzling funds in July 2008.
During the interview, Quarm allegedly admitted to using “money from the Post Office to support his private retail business”, which had been struggling.Grant maintained that Quarm had “deliberately, wilfully and knowingly” moved money from the Post Office to his own bank account.
However, after giving his evidence, he then became emotional, apologising for his role in the scandal.He lashed out at his former employer: “The Post Office let the postmasters down.
“They let the staff who they employed down by being less than open and honest with information that should have been shared and wasn’t shared. They deceived me and deceived an awful lot more people. For my part in it, I am humbly sorry.”
