Alan Bates (subpostmaster)

Last updated

Sir
Alan Bates
Sir Alan Bates (cropped).png
Bates in 2024
Born1954or1955(age 69–70)
Liverpool, England
OccupationFormer subpostmaster
Known forFounder of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA) and campaigner for victims of the British Post Office scandal
SpouseSuzanne Sercombe

Sir Alan Bates (born 1954or1955) [1] is a former subpostmaster and a leading campaigner for victims of the British Post Office scandal, in which thousands of subpostmasters were accused of dishonesty when faulty Post Office accounting software created shortfalls in their accounts. After the Post Office terminated his contract in 2003 over a false shortfall, he sought out other subpostmasters in the same position and went on to found the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance in 2009. The group took the Post Office to court and, following two favourable judgments in Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd, accepted a settlement of £57.75 million, which left the 555 claimants with little money after legal fees were paid. Bates has continued to campaign for fair compensation for subpostmasters. He was knighted in June 2024 for his campaigning and the following month received an honorary degree from Bangor University.

Contents

Background

Bates was born in Liverpool and studied graphic design in Wrexham. As a project manager in the heritage sector, he worked on the installation of electronic point of sale systems for castles in Wales and for the Eureka! museum in Halifax. [2] : 53–4  In the late 1990s, Bates and his partner Suzanne Sercombe, a special needs teacher, decided on a career-change and began looking for a sub-post office to run. In May 1998, they took over The Wool Post, a post office and haberdashery shop in Craig-y-Don, Llandudno, Wales, investing £65,000 in the post office side of the business. Bates was appointed subpostmaster after undergoing security checks and producing a business plan. [2] : 54 

Difficulties with Horizon software

In the early 2000s, the Post Office rolled out Horizon, new accounting and point-of-sale software developed and maintained by Fujitsu, to all its branches and sub-post offices. It arrived at Craig-y-Don in October 2000 and problems emerged almost immediately. By December 2000 the system was showing an unexplained £6,000 shortfall, which was eventually reduced to about £1,000. [2] : 54–5  Bates complained repeatedly to Post Office management that the Horizon system was unreliable, that its reporting facilities did not allow tracing of events behind shortfalls, and that it was wrong that operators were obliged to make good on shortfalls caused by the software. [3] Over a two-year period he and his staff made 507 calls to the Post Office helpline, 85 of which related to Horizon. [4] His contract was terminated with no reason given in November 2003. Although he was not prosecuted, he lost the £65,000 which he had invested in the business. [5] In April 2024, when giving evidence at the Horizon IT public inquiry, Bates was shown internal Post Office documents in which his termination was said to be due to him being "unmanageable" and which referred to him as someone who "struggled with accounting". [3]

Bates says he and his wife Suzanne were luckier than many of the other subpostmasters:

Even though the post office was taken away, we still had the retail side of our business, which we ran for a few years… We were fortunate enough to come out with enough to buy outright a small property for ourselves… We both had basic jobs and also I went back to college to [study] more on computer sciences and stuff of that sort, which was very useful going forward. It did help once we started to get into court and on the technical aspects of all of this. [5]

Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance

After his contract was terminated by the Post Office, Bates sought to highlight his concerns. A letter to his local newspaper was published in October 2003 and led to an article in which he was quoted as saying that he would fight for as long as it takes to right the wrong done to himself and the people of Craig-y-Don. He set up a website called Post Office Victims, inviting subpostmasters who had had similar experiences to come forward. [2] : 62  In May 2009, Computer Weekly broke the story of the Post Office scandal, featuring the cases of Alan Bates and six other subpostmasters. [2] : 91–3  The story was taken up by BBC Wales's current affairs programme Taro Naw, which included an interview with Bates and was broadcast in September 2009. Bates then decided it was time to organise a meeting with other subpostmasters who had experienced similar difficulties with Horizon. He chose the village hall in the Warwickshire village of Fenny Compton as the venue of the November 2009 meeting, picking a place in the middle of England at random. About 20–25 former subpostmasters turned up, many bringing partners, and discussed ways to seek redress from the Post Office. After the meeting, the group decided on a name: Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance or JFSA. [2] : 101–3 

With the support of a group of Members of Parliament, led by James Arbuthnot, whose constituent Jo Hamilton had been convicted of false accounting, the JFSA was responsible for the Post Office's decision in 2013 to appoint independent forensic accountants Second Sight to investigate Horizon prosecutions and establish a mediation scheme. With Second Sight sacked after they became critical of the Post Office's actions, and the mediation scheme closed down, Bates developed plans to take legal action against the Post Office. [6]

Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd

Represented by solicitor James Hartley from the Yorkshire firm Freeths and a team of barristers under Patrick Green of Henderson Chambers, subpostmasters obtained funding for their case against the Post Office from litigation funders Therium. [7] [8] Bates and forensic accountant Kay Linnell formed a steering group to lead 555 claimants in the case Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd, which was heard under a group litigation order (GLO). [7] [2] : 438  Judge Peter Fraser issued his first judgment in March 2019, finding that the Post Office contract was unfair on subpostmasters. [7] The judge survived an attempt by the Post Office to have him recused, but by the time he issued a draft judgment on Horizon issues, which found that the systems contained bugs, errors and defects, the litigants had run out of funding and accepted a settlement of £57.75 million from the Post Office. [7] After legal costs were deducted, the settlement left only about £12 million for the claimants, which was not enough to provide realistic compensation to many of them. [7] The government later announced that it would provide further compensation to the litigants through the GLO compensation scheme. [9] Following the settlement, Bates crowdfunded £98,000 to obtain legal advice to submit a claim to the Parliamentary Ombudsman, asking the government to reimburse the legal costs of the group litigants and provide additional compensation. [2] : 425, 455  The Horizon judgment paved the way for convicted subpostmasters to have their convictions quashed. [10]

Horizon IT inquiry

In September 2020, the government set up an independent inquiry, chaired by retired High Court judge Sir Wyn Williams, into the Horizon scandal. Bates and the JFSA refused to co-operate until the inquiry was converted into a statutory public inquiry the following year. [11] Bates gave evidence at the inquiry for the first time on 9 April 2024. [3] He told the inquiry that his 20-year campaign had been inspired by a sense of injustice aligned to his own stubbornness:

Once I'd started my individual little campaign, we found others along the way, and eventually we all joined up. It has required dedication, but secondly, it is a cause. I mean, as you got to meet people, and realise it wasn't just yourself. And you saw the harm, the injustice that had been descended upon them, it was something that you felt you had to deal with. [3]

He referred to Post Office officials as "thugs in suits" and said the government had been vindictive in offering him a derisory sum in compensation. [3]

Dramatisation

Bates was played by Toby Jones in Mr Bates vs The Post Office , a four-part dramatisation of the Post Office scandal broadcast by ITV in the first week of 2024. By April 2024 the series had been watched by 13.5 million people and reignited public interest in the scandal. [12]

Awards

In 2023, Bates won special recognition in the annual Pride of Britain Awards. [13] He said in early 2024 that he had declined an appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his campaigning, because Paula Vennells, a former Post Office Limited CEO, was still a Commander of the order (CBE). [lower-alpha 1] [15]

On 14 June 2024 Bates received a knighthood in the King's Birthday Honours. He said he was accepting the honour on behalf of the subpostmasters to whom "horrendous things" had happened. [16]

In July 2024 Bates, together with fellow-campaigner Noel Thomas, was awarded an honorary degree by Bangor University. [17]

Compensation

In January 2024, Bates was offered compensation by the Post Office. The sum was about one sixth of what he had claimed and he called the offer cruel and derisory. In May 2024, he rejected a second offer of about double the first. [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Arbuthnot</span> British politician and life peer (born 1952)

James Norwich Arbuthnot, Baron Arbuthnot of Edrom,, is a British Conservative Party politician. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Wanstead and Woodford from 1987 to 1997, and then MP for North East Hampshire from 1997 to 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed Davey</span> British politician (born 1965)

Sir Edward Jonathan Davey is a British politician who has served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats since 2020, having acted in the position from 2019 to 2020. He served in the Cameron–Clegg coalition as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2012 to 2015 and as deputy leader to Jo Swinson in 2019. An "Orange Book" liberal, Davey has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston and Surbiton since 2017, previously holding the seat from 1997 to 2015.

Public-interest immunity (PII), previously known as Crown privilege, is a principle of English common law under which the English courts can grant a court order allowing one litigant to refrain from disclosing evidence to the other litigants where disclosure would be damaging to the public interest. This is an exception to the usual rule that all parties in litigation must disclose any evidence that is relevant to the proceedings. In making a PII order, the court has to balance the public interest in the administration of justice and the public interest in maintaining the confidentiality of certain documents whose disclosure would be damaging. PII orders have been used in criminal law against large organised criminal outfits and drug dealers where the identity of paid police informants could be at risk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Post Office Limited</span> British retail post office company owned by the government of the United Kingdom

Post Office Limited, commonly known as the Post Office, is a retail post office company in the United Kingdom that provides a wide range of postal and non-postal related products including postage stamps, banking, insurance, bureau de change and identity verification services to the public through its nationwide network of around 11,500 post office branches. Most of these branch post offices are run by franchise partners or by independent business people known as subpostmasters; Post Office Limited directly manages the remaining 1%, known as Crown post offices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Crozier</span> Scottish businessman

Adam Alexander Crozier is a Scottish businessman who was formerly the chief executive officer of media company ITV plc, operator of the ITV television network covering most of the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dalmellington</span> Market town and civil parish in Scotland

Dalmellington is a market town and civil parish in East Ayrshire, Scotland.

Womble Bond Dickinson is a transatlantic law firm formed in 2017 as a result of a merger between UK-based Bond Dickinson LLP and US-based Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, LLP. The combination followed a strategic alliance announcement made in 2016. The firm has 32 locations across the United States and the United Kingdom offering services in 12 different sectors.

The North Wales child abuse scandal was the subject of a three-year, £13 million investigation into the physical and sexual abuse of children in care homes in the counties of Clwyd and Gwynedd, in North Wales, including the Bryn Estyn children's home at Wrexham, between 1974 and 1990. The report into the scandal, headed by retired High Court judge Sir Ronald Waterhouse QC, which was published in 2000, resulted in changes in policy in England and Wales into how authorities deal with children in care, and to the settling of 140 compensation claims on behalf of victims of child abuse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dunelm Group</span> British home furnishings retailer

Dunelm Group plc, trading as Dunelm, is a British home furnishings retailer operating in the United Kingdom. One of the largest homeware retailers in the UK, the company headquarters are in Syston, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. Until 2013 the company traded as Dunelm Mill.

The National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP) is a membership organisation, which does not represent subpostmasters in the United Kingdom. Subpostmasters are self-employed business operators, approved by Post Office Ltd to act as their agents in running Post Office branches (outlets). In Jan 2023, the NFSP had 6727 members who operated approximately 9,300 post office branches. Post Office Ltd is contractually obliged to consult the NFSP on behalf of subpostmasters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Parker (businessman)</span> British executive (born 1955)

Timothy Charles Parker is a British executive. He has been chairman of the National Trust, Post Office Ltd and Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS). From 1986 to 2014 he was CEO of a number of companies, including successively Kenwood, Clarks Shoes, Kwik-Fit, the AA and Samsonite. He is currently non-executive chairman of Samsonite, and a director of British Pathe.

Alan Bates (1934–2003) was a British actor of stage, screen, and television.

The British Post Office scandal, also called the Horizon IT scandal, involved the Post Office pursuing thousands of innocent subpostmasters for apparent financial shortfalls caused by faults in Horizon, an accounting software system developed by Fujitsu. Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 subpostmasters were convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting based on faulty Horizon data, with about 700 of these prosecutions carried out by the Post Office. Other subpostmasters were prosecuted but not convicted, forced to cover shortfalls caused by Horizon with their own money, or had their contracts terminated. The court cases, criminal convictions, imprisonments, loss of livelihoods and homes, debts, and bankruptcies led to stress, illness, family breakdowns and at least four suicides. In 2024, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described the scandal as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British history.

The Windrush scandal was a British political scandal that began in 2018 concerning people who were wrongly detained, denied legal rights, threatened with deportation, and in at least 83 cases wrongly deported from the UK by the Home Office. Many of those affected had been born British subjects and had arrived in the UK before 1973, particularly from Caribbean countries, as members of the "Windrush generation".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paula Vennells</span> British businesswoman and priest (born 1959)

Paula Anne Vennells is a British former businesswoman who was the chief executive officer (CEO) of Post Office Limited from 2012 to 2019, years which saw the continuing prosecution of innocent subpostmasters and a very costly and unsuccessful attempt to defend a group action. She is also an ordained Anglican priest who voluntarily ceased her clerical duties in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Fraser (judge)</span> British judge (born 1963)

Sir Peter Donald Fraser PC, styled The Right Honourable Lord Justice Fraser, is a Judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales.

<i>Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd</i> 2017-19 English court case

Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd was a group legal action taken by 555 subpostmasters against Post Office Limited (POL), commonly known as the Post Office. It was heard by Justice Fraser in the High Court between 2017 and 2019. Six judgments were handed down, two of them dealing with substantive matters while the other four dealt with procedural matters. The Common Issues trial examined the contract between the subpostmasters and the Post Office and found largely in favour of the claimants, while the Horizon Issues trial found that Horizon, the Post Office accounting software, contained bugs, errors and defects that could cause shortfalls in the subpostmasters' accounts. Further scheduled trials were not held, as the claimants and the Post Office settled after the Horizon Issues trial.

<i>HIV Haemophilia Litigation</i> Legal action by haemophiliacs infected with HIV through blood products

The HIV Haemophilia Litigation [1990] 41 BMLR 171, [1990] 140 NLJR 1349 (CA), [1989] E N. 2111, also known as AMcG002, and HHL, was a legal claim by 962 plaintiffs, mainly haemophiliacs, who were infected with HIV as a result of having been treated with blood products in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The first central defendants were the then Department of Health, with other defendants being the Licensing Authority of the time, (MCA), the CSM, the CBLA, and the regional health authorities of England and Wales. In total, there were 220 defendants in the action.

<i>Mr Bates vs The Post Office</i> 2024 British television series

Mr Bates vs The Post Office is a four-part British television drama series for ITV, written by Gwyneth Hughes, directed by James Strong and starring an ensemble cast led by Toby Jones. The series is a dramatisation of the British Post Office scandal, a miscarriage of justice in which hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongly prosecuted for theft, false accounting or fraud due to a faulty computer system called Horizon. It was broadcast on four consecutive days from 1 January 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jo Hamilton (subpostmaster)</span> British campaigner and former subpostmaster

Jo Hamilton is a former subpostmaster and a passionate campaigner for justice for victims of the British Post Office scandal. She ran a village post office in Hampshire from 2001 until 2006, when she was suspended and then wrongly prosecuted for shortfalls caused by the Post Office faulty accounting software, Horizon. She was convicted of false accounting, received a supervision order and had to pay the Post Office £36,000 although it was money she did not owe. Her treatment at the hands of the Post Office had a devastating impact on her health, family and finances. She went on to be a founding member of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA) and one of the 555 litigants in the successful group legal action of Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd. Her criminal conviction was overturned in April 2021.

References

  1. ↑ Davison, Tamara (10 January 2024). "Who is Alan Bates? The former subpostmaster who unearthed the Post Office scandal". The Standard. Archived from the original on 11 January 2024. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Wallis, Nick (2022). The Great Post Office Scandal. Bath: Bath Publishing. ISBN   978-1-7390992-0-6.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Alan Bates tells Post Office inquiry ministers tried to sabotage his claim". The Guardian. 9 April 2024.
  4. ↑ "Alan Bates says Post Office was run by 'thugs in suits'". BBC. 10 April 2024.
  5. 1 2 "The real Alan Bates tells his story". RNZ. 7 April 2024.
  6. ↑ "'Systemically, seriously wrong': the 20-year quest to reveal Post Office IT scandal". The Guardian. 12 January 2024.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Bankruptcy, jail, ruined lives: inside the Post Office scandal". Financial Times. 11 September 2020.
  8. ↑ "Mr Bates and the Post Office: the true stories behind the show's real-life characters". The Standard. 20 December 2023.
  9. ↑ "How do the Post Office scandal compensation schemes work?". BBC. 27 February 2024.
  10. ↑ "Former Post Office executive gave 'false' evidence at high court, inquiry hears". The Guardian. 25 April 2024.
  11. ↑ "Post Office Horizon scandal inquiry extended after criticism". BBC. 19 May 2021.
  12. ↑ "Mr Bates vs Post Office drama lost £1m, ITV boss says". BBC. 24 April 2024.
  13. ↑ "Pride of Britain Awards: Alan Bates". Pride of Britain Awards. 2023. Retrieved 25 May 2024.
  14. ↑ "King strips CBE from former Post Office boss Paula Vennells". The Guardian. PA Media. 23 February 2024. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 25 February 2024.
  15. ↑ Patrick, Holly (2 January 2024). "Real-life Mr Bates reveals why he turned down OBE for Post Office campaigning". Independent . Archived from the original on 9 January 2024. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  16. ↑ Davies, Caroline (14 June 2024). "Post Office campaigner Alan Bates knighted in king's birthday honours". The Guardian.
  17. ↑ "Post Office scandal victim calls honour fantastic". BBC News. 8 July 2024.
  18. ↑ "Alan Bates rejects second Post Office compensation offer". BBC. 17 May 2024. Retrieved 25 May 2024.

Notes

  1. ↑ Vennels was stripped of her CBE in February 2024. [14]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.