Sir Alan Bates says he hopes ‘real baddies’ are held to account

The Post Office campaigner, Sir Alan Bates, has said that he hopes the “real baddies” involved in the IT scandal are held to account.

Sir Alan said that “many” people had “dropped the ball” on the matter, including government figures and senior executives.

The official inquiry into the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of sub-postmasters after faulty Horizon software said money was missing from their Post Office branch accounts will hear closing statements from lawyers this week.

Sir Alan added that he hopes the inquiry’s chair, Sir Wyn Williams, would “name names in this one”.

In an interview with the BBC’s World at One programme, the former sub-postmaster said that he hoped that public scrutiny would ensure justice was done.

“Many of us know who the guilty ones are. That’s really what we are looking forward to,” Sir Alan said.

Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds were wrongly prosecuted after Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon IT accounting system made it look like money was missing.

Many lost their livelihoods or were forced to make up shortfalls, while others have described feeling ostracised from their communities. Some former sub-postmasters took their own lives.

The hearing on the scandal has been running since February 2022, and has heard from ministers, chief executives, and sub-postmasters.

At the beginning of the year, the ITV drama Mr Bates versus the Post Office captured the public’s imagination and won a number of awards by focussing on the human stories behind the scandal.

Sir Alan said that “the country will be holding quite a few people to account on this and they will want to see real justice” as a result.

Sir Wyn’s final report on the scandal is due to be published next year, but Sir Alan said he was worried it could be “put on a shelf” and that little would happen afterwards.

While the inquiry draws to a close, many former Post Office branch managers are still waiting to finalise compensation due to them.

Sir Alan said that his most recent offer on redress, which he has rejected, was worth a third of his original claim. The first redress offer was for one sixth of his original claim, he said.

His claim was now with Sir Ross Cranston, a former High Court Judge, who is the Independent Reviewer of the GLO Post Office scheme, he said.

He said that many sub-postmasters were hoping to “put it behind them”, but that they would continue to “see it through”.

Concerns have been raised over the length of the process, while Sir Alan said that the government was paying lawyers “hundreds of millions” rather than settling with postmasters.