A former Post Office boss admitted to “joining in the backslapping” over the conviction of a pregnant postmistress. Rod Ismay described Seema Misra’s guilty verdict as an “excellent result” and thanked his team and colleagues for their work in what he described as an “important case”. Mrs Misra was eight weeks pregnant when she was handed a 15-month sentence in November 2010 after pleading guilty to false accounting and being convicted of theft by a jury. She began running a branch in West Byfleet, Surrey, in 2005 – but was prosecuted over an alleged shortfall of £74,000. An email previously shown to the inquiry showed Jarnail Singh, then a senior lawyer at the Post Office, sharing the news of the jury verdict with colleagues in October 2010, before adding: “It is to be hoped the case will set a marker to dissuade other defendants from jumping on the Horizon-bashing bandwagon.” Mrs Misra was one of more than 900 sub-postmasters wrongfully prosecuted as a result of the Horizon scandal, due to the software falsely recording shortfalls on branch accounts. On Friday, Jason Beer KC, lead counsel to the Post Office inquiry, revealed that Mr Ismay’s response to Mr Singh’s email –...