Sir Alan Bates has revealed he still hasn’t received any compensation from the Post Office, despite an inquiry into the Horizon scandal and being knighted.
More than 900 sub-postmasters were prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 after faulty Horizon accounting software made it look as though money was missing from their accounts.
Hundreds are still awaiting compensation despite the previous government announcing that those who have had convictions quashed are eligible for £600,000 payouts. The Post Office has paid about £438 million to 3,100 claimants.
In August, it emerged that lawyers representing the Post Office during the scandal had earned almost as much as the compensation paid to wronged sub-postmasters.Â
But Sir Alan, and many others, are still waiting for theirs. He has turned down two offers of financial redress – one in January, when he was offered about a sixth of the amount he claimed for, and another in May for a third of the total amount he claimed for. He labelled the offers ‘offensive and cruel’.
Speaking to The Times, he called the scheme ‘a shambles’ and said the amounts families are being offered were ‘madness’.
Since the drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office came out, he can no longer go anywhere without being ‘stopped on the street’, he said, insisting: ‘It’s not about me, all of this.’
Alan Bates received his knighthood at Windsor Castle in September
Sir Alan tirelessly campaigned on behalf of hundreds of postmasters who were wrongly convicted of fraud while the Post Office covered up the real culprit – its new IT system
Sir Alan’s status was further enhanced this year when depicted by Toby Jones in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which was watched by millions
In September, Mr Bates received his knighthood from Princess Anne at Windsor Castle for exposing the Horizon IT scandal.
Sir Alan was the figurehead in the decades-long campaign to have his colleagues’ names cleared and win compensation after hundreds were wrongly convicted of fraud while the Post Office covered up problems with the real culprit – its new IT system.
He said he was pleased to see a lot of the ‘baddies’ being brought up in the inquiry when they are normally ‘hidden away’ and said it was ‘quite cathartic’.Â
He had previously rejected an OBE while Post Office boss Paula Vennells still retained her CBE after her role in what many have called the biggest miscarriage of justice in UK history.
But upon hearing that he had been stripped of the honour, he accepted the knighthood in June and said was he was ‘honoured’ by the award.
He had insisted his knighthood for services to justice was on behalf of the hundreds of subpostmasters affected by the scandal and the ‘horrendous things that have happened’.
Speaking about the ceremony where he was knighted, Mr Bates told The Times: ‘They get you in and out. There’s no cups of tea or anything’ but called it ‘all very fancy’.
in August, the couple travelled to Branson’s private island in the Caribbean and got married in a surprise ceremony.
Mr Bates and Suzanne Sercome were married on Sir Richard Branson’s private island in the Caribbean.Â
Post Office campaigner Sir Alan Bates married his partner Suzanne Sercombe on Sir Richard Branson’s private island in the Caribbean
Richard Branson officiated the wedding of Alan Bates and Suzanne Sercombe (pictured together) on Necker Island
Touching photographs showed the couple, both wearing brightly coloured clothing, tying the knot as Virgin tycoon officiated on Necker Island, the British Virgin Islands, on August 27.
Sir Richard invited the couple to the island after Sir Alan, 70, said in an interview in January: ‘If Richard Branson is reading this, I’d love a holiday.’
He said he couldn’t think of ‘anyone more deserving of a break’, and quipped that millions of people had sent their congratulations, but ‘there was an issue at the Post Office!’
The wedding came as a surprise to the new Lady Bates, 69, who had to wear a patterned sundress she had packed for the holiday.
Sir Alan, 70, joked the wedding was the fault of King Charles III, who awarded him with a knighthood in June, because since the ceremony no-one had known how to address his now-wife.
But despite the successful Post Office drama and his wedding, all is not well.
Sub-postmasters convicted by the DWP have not had their convictions overturned.Â
Alan Bates was awarded a knighthood in the King’s Birthday Honours after his landmark campaign for justice for hundreds of wrongly convicted postmasters
‘People try and blame the politicians, but I have to say I think they’re pawns to the civil service,’ he said.
Slamming the amounts offered to those affected, he added: ‘People have lost homes, businesses, pensions, huge amounts — let alone the time.’
Mr Bates has been offered ‘ridiculous’ amounts of money to make speeches and do TV appearances but turned them down because he doesn’t want to make money ‘on the back of other people’s suffering’.
Sir Alan had previously laughed off claims he was a hero, but said he had received hundreds of messages of support, adding: ‘A lot of people do seem to think I should receive some sort of recognition for the work that I’ve done for them or on their behalf.’
In October 2000, Sir Alan and Lady Suzanne bought a post office and haberdashery in Llandudno, Wales, in 1998.
The Horizon IT system was installed in October 2000 and within two months financial discrepancies were showing up.
Alan Bates, stands with his wife Lady Suzanne Sercombe, before he receives his knighthood at an Investiture ceremony in Windsor Castle
The Post Office hero was awarded the honour by Princess AnneÂ
Sir Alan insisted they were not his fault and refused to pay the shortfall. His contract was terminated in November 2003 and, while he was not prosecuted, he lost the £65,000 he had invested in the business.
The first sign of his transformation to feted campaigner began in October 2003, when he wrote to his local newspaper saying he would never give up his fight against the Post Office.
In 2009, Computer Weekly broke the story of the Post Office scandal, featuring Sir Alan and six other victims, and he founded the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance.
Just 20 people turned up to the group’s first meeting, but it soon mushroomed into a high-profile campaign that ultimately led to group litigation against the shamed Post Office, and the ongoing public inquiry.
