Post Office hero Alan Bates to give long-awaited evidence as inquiry resumes

08 April 2024 , 17:50

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Former subpostmaster Alan Bates will give evidence to the public inquiry (Image: Thomas Krych/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock)

Former subpostmaster Alan Bates became a national hero after ITV drama 'Mr Bates vs the Post Office' shone a light on his decades-long fight for justice.

He will give evidence to the public inquiry into the scandal, which saw more than 900 subpostmasters prosecuted for shortfalls in their accounts caused by a faulty IT system. The probe will shift its focus to the role ministers and company executives played in what has been described as the biggest miscarriage of justice in British history.

Mr Bates, who led a High Court case brought by 555 sub-postmasters, said police must consider prosecuting those responsible for the scandal - and bumper bonuses paid to executives should be "clawed back". Ahead of his appearance, he told the BBC: “People have got to be held accountable, I see no sign of it yet – but I think after the inquiry then I think that’s definitely the next stage. And then we start looking at prosecutions, not just that as well. Huge bonuses have been paid to people over the years. Some that should be clawed back.”

ITV drama 'Mr Bates vs the Post Office' trigger a ferocious public backlash

Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake said that the culprits should be locked up when the inquiry ends as he heard heartbreaking stories from victims, including a woman who was jailed while pregnant. Mr Hollinrake joined dozens of subpostmasters in Fenny Compton, the Warwickshire village where Mr Bates first mounted his fight for justice 15 years ago.

He said: "People should be prosecuted. That's my view. And I think you and other people I've spoken to certainly feel that people within the Post Office and possibly further afield should go to jail." He said the victims' ordeal had been "inexcusable" and admitted that compensation had not been awarded quickly enough to subpostmasters whose lives were ruined by the scandal.

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It comes as the inquiry enters a key phase, with a number of ministers and senior Post Office and Fujitsu figures hauled before the probe.

North Durham MP Kevan Jones, who sits on the Horizon compensation advisory board, told the Mirror: "This stage is significant because all the people who have remained silent, hiding behind the public inquiry, will now have to explain themselves in public. It's been frustrating to the victims because they have lived with this for over two decades - and the fact that what's been said in public has now been proven not to be true."

Labour MP Kate Osborne, who has campaigned for justice for subpostmasters, said: "Too many people have died before seeing justice, too many still fighting are being shut down prematurely with the Post Office still interfering in processes and compensation claims. People that have suffered the most are having to wait the longest. They have waited long enough and for those still fighting they feel like their lives are slipping away."

She added: "The Government needs to stop hiding behind inquiries and process - the evidence of wrongdoing especially with the leaked recordings is there for all to see and action must be taken against those responsible for this vile miscarriage of justice. It is those responsible that should go to jail, not these innocent postmasters."

A number of key figures will give evidence to the inquiry in the coming weeks, including Paul Vennells, who was chief executive of the Post Office between 2012 and 2019. Ms Vennells has come under intense scrutiny after leaked recordings suggested she knew subpostmasters accounts could be altered remotely as early as 2013 - two years before the Post Office stopped prosecuting victims. She also denied to MPs that this was possible in 2015.

Ms Vennells refused to comment when she was confronted on Sunday over whether she lied to MPs about the scandal. As she got on her bike to cycle away, she was told by a Channel 4 reporter there is "a lot of evidence" of a cover up."

The Commons Business Committee are considering sanctioning Ms Vennells for potentially misleading Parliament over what she knew. She handed back her CBE earlier this year after a public furore in the wake of the ITV drama.

Lizzy Buchan