Christopher Poulter and Kevin Biggs have had theft convictions quashed nearly 50 years after they were wrongly convicted following evidence from corrupt British Transport Police officer Derek Ridgewell. The pair, aged 21 and 18 in 1976, were accused of stealing 13 mailbags from a wagon in London, despite saying they had been in a pub; Poulter received a prison sentence and Biggs was sent to borstal.

Ridgewell was jailed in 1980 for stealing more than £1 million in goods and framing numerous young black men. The Criminal Cases Review Commission referred the case to the Court of Appeal after new evidence emerged, making Poulter and Biggs the 14th and 15th people cleared in connection with Ridgewell’s misconduct; Biggs died in 2004. Their lawyers criticised British Transport Police for taking decades to investigate and identify victims, arguing that the delay left Poulter branded a criminal for most of his life.