TODAY the Oxford Mail is delighted to offer its wholehearted congratulations to Vipichandra Patel and his family in Horspath.

It is hard to imagine just what a huge weight has been lifted from all of their shoulders.

The Oxford Mail has followed Mr Patel’s court case from the very start, way back in 2010.

When he was convicted, we even quoted one villager who said how shocked they were that this friendly, helpful postmaster could have been swindling funds – a sign, even then, that this was a particularly unusual case.

If the villagers were shocked, it was nothing to what the entire Patel family had to go through.

He even raised the alarm with the Post Office that the Horizon accounting system seemed to be making some calculation errors, but it seemed that no one wanted to listen.

The next thing he knew he was being hauled up in front of a court, slapped with a custodial sentence and being told to pay back all of the money that had mysteriously gone missing.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the family then began to feel stigmatised by the village – and perhaps understandably: we are generally able to have faith in our legal system, so when someone is convicted of a crime, 99 per cent of the time it is because they did it.

So, when Mr Patel says today that he feels like a great burden has been lifted from his shoulders, we can instantly know exactly how he feels.

It is hard not to smile when you read those words, knowing the hell that whole family has been through.

And yet Mr Patel still spares a thought for the thousands of others who have still not got justice.

Some of those others are in our own county – still carrying the shame and stigma of their convictions. Some of them may never get that stain removed, and all because of a faulty IT system.