A ruling reversed one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British legal history, and follows a years-long, complex legal battle that could see Britain's Post Office face a huge compensation bill for its failures following the installation, from 1999, of what turned out to be the defective Horizon computerised accounting system in local branches.

Dozens of staff were convicted after the Fujitsu-supplied system pointed to an array of financial misdemeanours that bewildered the postal workers. Six others had their convictions quashed, while another 700 workers were believed to have been prosecuted between 2000 and 2014.

Jobs, homes and marriages were lost as a result of wrongful convictions, and some did not live long enough to see their names cleared by Britain's Court of Appeals.

Confirmation that the convictions were quashed was met with cheers and tears. A few bottles of bubbly were also popped.

Basically, the issue was caused by managers who put their blind faith that those in authority placed in the software without proper accounting.

Some desperate sub-postmasters even "attempted to plug the gap with their own money, even remortgaging their homes, in an (often fruitless) attempt to correct an error".

The judge in the case complains that for years the Post Office had "consistently asserted that Horizon was robust and reliable" and "effectively steamrolled over any subpostmaster who sought to challenge its accuracy".

Post Office chief executive Nick Read said: "I am in no doubt about the human cost of the Post Office's past failures and the deep pain that has been caused to people affected.

"Many of those postmasters involved have been fighting for justice for a considerable length of time and sadly some are not here to see the outcome today and whose families have taken forward appeals in their memory. I am very moved by their courage."

There were 73 convictions in Scotland caused by the failure. Although 47 postmasters in England and Wales have had their cases referred to the Appeal Court, there has never been similar action in Scotland.

However, now the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission has written to the people it believes may also have been the victims of possible miscarriages of justice in Scotland relating to the Horizon computer system.