In Mr Bates Vs The Submit Workplace, the ITV drama that launched the scandalous remedy of sub-postmasters to a mass viewers, Toby Jones portrayed its eponymous hero as cussed, acerbic and indefatigable.
Showing on the public inquiry that might not be taking place with out him, the real-life Alan Bates was all these and extra.
Having waited virtually twenty years for the chance, he set out the case in opposition to the Submit Workplace with the ethical authority of a person who has spent 3 times as lengthy campaigning for justice as he did as a sub-postmaster in Llandudno, Wales.
That, he mentioned, “was right down to the Submit Workplace, not me”, successful the primary of a number of laughs from a room occupied by banks of legal professionals, the present Submit Workplace chief government Nick Learn, and dozens of sub-postmasters who additionally suffered at its hand.
As Mr Bates identified, many suffered excess of him, going through legal convictions, imprisonment, chapter and the demolition of their reputations.
He was sacked for a shortfall of a comparatively paltry £1,100, which he refused to repay on the grounds that it was not his fault however that of the blighted Horizon pc system.
Reasonably than take him on, the Submit Workplace terminated his contract, partly, the inquiry heard, as a result of he had turn into “unmanageable” – and which may have been the top of it.
“At one stage I did supply, should you’re not proud of the way in which we’re providing your providers, to allow them to pay me what we invested and provides it [the branch] again,” he mentioned.
“I’d have been fairly glad for them to do this and I in all probability would not be right here if that had occurred.”
Please use Chrome browser for a extra accessible video participant
Submit Workplace CEO says proof was ‘sobering’ and ‘compelling’.
How the Submit Workplace executives, ministers and officers he uncovered, a few of whom could face legal fees, should want that they had taken him up on the supply.
As a substitute, the injustice and the issues he had seen within the Horizon system rankled, and Mr Bates famously sought out others he knew have to be experiencing the identical – a bunch he described as “like stray lambs”.
“The Submit Workplace terminated my contract purely, in my perception, as a result of I saved elevating issues and considerations over its Horizon system because of a lot of faults,” he mentioned.
Learn extra:
Submit Workplace ‘agrees’ to submit report on CEO’s behaviour to MPs
Sunak declines to again beneath hearth Submit Workplace boss Learn
A Submit Workplace TV drama sequel with out the necessity for actors
“As soon as I began my particular person little marketing campaign we discovered others alongside the way in which and finally all of us joined up, and so the JFSA [Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance] was born.
“As soon as you bought to satisfy individuals and realised it was not simply your self, and realised the hurt and injustice that had been visited on them, it is one thing you needed to take care of, you could not put down, and also you had the assist of the remainder of the group in there as properly.”
Please use Chrome browser for a extra accessible video participant
Issues ‘solely weeks after the system went dwell’
Spurred on by the rising cover-up as a lot as the unique sin, his marketing campaign gathered tempo. What was exceptional was how proper he was from the beginning, and the way meticulous he was in gathering the proof to show it.
Listening to the letters he despatched within the early 2000s to his regional line supervisor, to the Submit Workplace chairman, to his MP and anybody else who would possibly assist, was to see the workings of a person who might need been getting ready for this present day from the very begin.
Learn extra:
Greater than £1m Submit Workplace ‘revenue’ could have come from sub-postmasters
Submit Workplace scandal victims obtain further interim redress
Former Submit Workplace boss Vennells formally stripped of gong
Remarkably, even after twenty years, the Submit Workplace’s tendency to obfuscate and delay has the ability to shock him, and the remainder of us.
Offered with a letter through which Submit Workplace officers mentioned verbally tipping off their insurers that Horizon was flawed “to make sure there isn’t any paper path”, he might solely shake his head.
His work led finally to the Excessive Courtroom, and a ruling that Horizon was certainly flawed, and the present push to hurry up compensation by way of a blanket exoneration of sub-postmasters by act of Parliament.
That has not quelled any of Mr Bates’s ire for these accountable. Former Submit Workplace minister Sir Ed Davey was offensive, the Submit Workplace investigators “thugs in fits”, and even now he believes his personal compensation is being delayed and decreased out of “vindictiveness”.
When he completed he would have been met by applause – had the inquiry chair Sir Wyn Williams not intervened, making an attempt to make sure honest remedy of witnesses who is likely to be much less standard with the gallery.
Their flip will come over the subsequent three months as Submit Workplace executives, officers and politicians reply for the actions so vividly uncovered by Mr Bates.
And no matter occurs, the real-life star of this shameful scandal has not misplaced his sense of humour. As he left I requested him what he’ll do when, and if, that is over.
“I believe I will purchase somewhat Submit Workplace and put my ft up,” he mentioned.
