Sir Alan Bates slams government 'flimflam artists' for dragging out compensation for victims of Post Office scandal

20 September 2024, 13:48

Sir Alan Bates has blamed government "flimflam artists" for dragging out the compensation process for victims of the Post Office scandal.

The former subpostmaster and campaigner has criticised the GLO (Group Litigation Order) scheme for being a "gravy train" for government lawyers, in a recent newsletter.

More than 900 subpostmasters were wrongly accused of stealing from their branches due to the faulty Horizon accounting system between 1999 and 2015.

Sir Alan, who leads the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, is calling on the government to set a deadline of next March to pay redress to the victims.

He has questioned whether the Department for Business and Trade is intending to “drag the whole issue out to exhaust victims until their deaths”.

Sir Alan said the GLO is "seemingly to ensure maximum income for the lawyers and minimal settlement for the victims".

He continued: "I have come to the conclusion that the department is run by government-employed flimflam artists, whose only role is to draw out the GLO Scheme, and probably the other schemes, and spin the narrative then bury it in bureaucracy."

The GLO Scheme is one of four compensation schemes aimed at providing financial redress for sub-postmasters and those affected by the scandal.

Read more: Post Office chief Nick Read resigns ahead of Horizon inquiry conclusion

Read more: Ed Davey says sorry for taking five months to meet Alan Bates and says ex-Post Office boss Paula Vennells ‘fed me lies’

It was set up after Sir Alan, leading a group of 555 sub-postmasters, won a landmark court case at the High Court.

Of the hundreds of members of the group, 63 had criminal convictions and therefore are not eligible for this scheme but they are eligible for other compensation - depending on how their convictions are being overturned.

According to the latest government figures, 201 of the eligible 492 subpostmasters in the GLO scheme have received their payments in full.

The government announced in January that those eligible for the scheme would receive at least £75,000 in compensation upfront.

Writing in the newsletter, Sir Alan said the £75,000 offer had worked for those with smaller claims but "the bulk" were for more than that.

He said: "I have been concerned to hear that a small number of people who are getting on in years have settled for far less than their claim's value, just to get it all over with, and that is wrong.

"Which raises the question: Is this part of the Department's [Department for Business and Trade] plan to drag the whole issue out to exhaust victims until their deaths? Regrettably we have lost far too many of the group already."

Sir Alan accused the government of implementing the scheme to "discount, to its maximum extent, the 'full and fair' promise" it gave "at the outset".

He is calling on the government to set a deadline of next March to pay redress to victims.

A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said: "It isn't acceptable that sub-postmasters feel they aren't being listened to or have their claims drawn out.

“Our ministers will continue to meet with those affected and work with them to get swift and fair redress paid.

"Since July we have taken swift action to launch the new Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme and announced a new appeals process in the Horizon Shortfall Scheme in order to speed up payments further.

"At the end of August, the GLO scheme had made offers to 253 people - over 80% of them have accepted, and more are still considering.

"We are making 90% of initial offers within 40 working days of receiving completed claims and we encourage the 229 people who have not yet sent us complete claims to come forward as soon as possible to claim back what they are owed."

Last Thursday, former subpostmistress Jo Hamilton also criticised the government for a lack of action on the scandal as she collected a National Television Award with fellow victims.

She said: "I went to Westminster a couple of weeks back and saw the new minister and trust me, nothing has changed."

In response to her comments, ministers said they were working "tirelessly" on the schemes while Sir Keir Starmer said he would "stick by" his commitment to pay the victims’ compensation.