Victim of the Post Office’s Horizon scandal Alan Bates has revealed he will snub a “cruel” and “derisory” compensation offer from the Government.
The former sub-postmaster’s harrowing story, which was mirrored by thousands of other sub-postmasters and postmistresses, was chronicled in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs. The Post Office. He has now hit out at the Government for offering him just a sixth of the compensation he had asked for.
After receiving the offer, he told The Telegraph: “Full and fair’ might be His Majesty’s Government’s interpretation, but in reality the offer is derisory, offensive and after all this time, yes, cruel.”
Mr Bates is one of 4,000 people eligible for compensation. Sub-postermasters and mistresses won a High Court battle against the Post Office in 2022, but only received small sums in compensation.
In reponse ministers said it would deliver “full and fair compensation”. The Government invited those affected to make their claims. Mr Bates said that his accountants forensically pored over his claim and offer was given him 111 days after he made it.
He told the publication that he would “absolutely” be refusing the offer, adding that it was “a terrible way to treat human beings”. Mr Bates also claimed that he’d heard from several other former Post Office staff that had been given “similarly derisory offers” and that others were “still waiting”.
The 70-year-old speculated on whether “government-appointed lawyers” were more interested in a “good earner”, noting that he and his solicitors would “have to spend hours and hours over weeks and months” going over his claim.
He went on: “I have been in the queue along with all the others in the scheme, but if my case is an example of the way they are going to treat all the cases, we may as well start looking at a legal action again and let the judiciary decide.”
Last year the Government announced that each wrongfully convicted postmaster would be offered £600,000 in compensation.
Rishi Sunak told the BBC last year: “Everyone has been shocked by watching what they have done over the past few days and beyond and it is an appalling miscarriage of justice.
“Obviously it’s something that happened a very long time ago in the ’90s but actually seeing it and hearing about it again just shows what an appalling miscarriages of justice it is for everyone affected and it’s important that those people now get the justice they deserve, and that’s what the compensation schemes are about.
“The Government has paid out about £150 million to thousands of people already. Of course we want to get the money to the people as quickly as possible, that’s why there are interim payments of up to, I think, £600,000 that can be made.
“There are three different schemes available and for anyone affected they should come forward.”
The scandal itself saw 700 Post Office branch managers given criminal convictions after faulty Fujitsu accounting software called Horizon made it appear as though money was missing from their shops.
A High Court judge ruled that Horizon contained a number of “bugs, errors and defects” and there was a “material risk” that shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts were caused by the system.
