Alan Bates, pioneer in Horizon Post Office scandal, urges Government to 'get moving' with compensation

3 January 2024, 20:57 | Updated: 3 January 2024, 21:00

A former sub-postmaster who campaigned to expose the Horizon Post Office scandal has urged the government to 'get moving' with compensation for victims.

Alan Bates spent two decades campaigning to clear the names of some 700 Post Office branch managers who were wrongly given criminal convictions after faulty software made it look as though money was missing.

Bates, a former subpostmaster from Wales who led the legal battle, said those who were wrongly accused needed to be compensated before they died of old age. Some 60 people have already passed away before they could be paid.

“Get moving with the compensation," Mr Bates told The Mirror. "Don’t extend the deadline for payments because you can’t extend people’s lives.”

“They haven’t even received offers yet," he continued. “It’s madness."

"It’s held up in the system and I know the government says it’s the lawyers who are holding it up, but it’s not the claimants’ lawyers, it’s government lawyers. It’s money they are owed," he told the publication.

"Some have been waiting over 20 years and suffering for far too long."

Read More: Where are Alan Bates and Paula Vennells now? The real people behind Mr Bates vs The Post Office

Read More: Post Office Horizon scandal victims to be offered £600,000 in compensation each

Over 700 Post Office branch managers were given criminal convictions after faulty Fujitsu accounting software, Horizon, made it look as if money was missing. More than 230 were ultimately jailed.

Sub-postmasters quickly realised unexplainable discrepancies in their records but the Post Office dismissed concerns as no one else was experiencing such issues. The Post Office then accused sub-postmasters of taking the missing finances for themselves and started criminal proceedings.

Mr Bates and five others from JFSA (Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance) took the post office to court on behalf of 555 claimants.

In 2019, the High Court ruled that the software contained "bugs, eros and defects" with "material risk" which caused shortfalls in the Post Office branch accounts.

The Post Office was later ordered to pay £58 million in compensation for the false prosecutions - and dubbed the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history.

It comes after former postal minister Ed Davey - now leader of the Liberal Democrats - broke his silence on the scandal, saying he regrets not asking tougher questions.

"It is a national scandal that has been going on for 20 years now and the Conservatives really need to sort this out and give proper compensation," Mr Davey said.

"I was Postal Affairs Minister for two years, I did see Mr Bates, and I regret not having asked the Post Office managers even tougher questions.

"I did, I obviously raised it with them, but I think that they have misled minister over minister across all political parties."

Mr Davey also addressed the inquiry into the scandal, saying: "I think it's right that there's a public inquiry into this – this is so outrageous."