The true story of ITV’s Mr Bates mail scandal

One of Britain’s most famous miscarriages of justice is the focus of a new ITV drama premiering on New Year’s Day.

Four part series Mr Bates v Post Office Toby Jones plays Alan Bates, a humble postal service boss who devotes almost twenty years of his life to uncovering a scandal involving the postal service and a computer system called Horizon.

The fallout will continue to impact the lives of postal workers for years to come, and the investigation into the incidents is not expected to conclude until this summer.

What is a mail scandal?

In 1999, the Horizon computerized accounting system was introduced to enable integrated payment of social security benefits through post offices.

That same year, problems arose with the system and postal employees reported financial discrepancies.

However, the Postal Service accused hundreds of postal service executives of theft, falsification of records or fraud and began prosecuting them.

Livelihoods were lost and reputations destroyed.

Postmasters suffered financial ruin as well as mental and physical health problems, and at least several people were reported to have committed suicide.

In March 2019, the Supreme Court ruled in Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd that there were software errors and defects that could cause apparent inconsistencies or bottlenecks in the branches’ accounts or transactions, affecting the reliability of Horizon’s accurate tracking of transactions and transactions. write down.

Two years later, in April 2021, in a landmark case, the Court of Appeals overturned the convictions of 39 postal service executives, ruling that the Postal Service’s prosecution of them constituted an “abuse of process” and an “affront to justice.”

Since then, the Post Office said it had identified a total of 700 convictions that may have used Horizon computer evidence in cases it handled between 1999 and 2015.

As of 22 December 2023, 93 of these convictions had been overturned, including five cases where the Post Office was not a plaintiff, and more than £30.9 million in compensation had been paid to date.

Who is Alan Bates?

Alan Bates worked as a sub-postmaster in Llandudno, Wales. After a deficit was discovered in his accounts in 2003 and the Post Office terminated his contract, he refused to admit that the accounting errors were his fault.

He suspected the Horizon computer system was to blame and launched a campaign, rallying hundreds of other interested post office executives.

He has advocated for justice for postal executives for the past two decades and led a group of colleagues who sued the Post Office, leading to the 2019 Supreme Court decision.

Speaking about his involvement in the drama series and what he hopes to achieve from it, he said: “Firstly, to reveal the truth about what Post did, and that has always been the group’s goal.”

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“This was followed by overturning of convictions and payment of compensation, but from the very beginning the campaign was always aimed at establishing the truth.

You may have heard that about 700 people were convicted, and only about 90 people went to the Court of Appeal and had their convictions overturned.

“Well, that 700 is actually closer to 1,000 if you include Northern Ireland and Scotland, which the government seems to have somehow forgotten to include in its figures until recently.

“We need more people like this to come forward.”

And finally, he said he wanted to ensure that “all those responsible who have so far gotten away with this carte blanche [be] bear responsibility for what they have done.”

How to watch Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office can be visited

First episode Mr Bates v Post Office broadcast at 21:00 on Monday, January 1, 2024

The remaining three-hour episodes will be shown.