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Lawyers who fought in a lengthy case against hundreds of subpostmasters led by Sir Alan Bates are being questioned over their role in the Post Office Horizon inquiry
The lengthy inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal continues – as lawyers who fought against hundreds of subpostmasters led by Alan Bates are grilled.
The inquiry will today hear from barristers Anthony de Garr Robinson KC and The Lord Grabiner KC, who represented the Post Office during the Horizon issues trial as part of the Bates v Post Office litigation.
Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd was a group legal action taken by 555 subpostmasters and heard in the High Court between 2017 and 2019. It came after the Horizon IT system ruined the lives of hundreds of Post Office workers when it mistakenly made it look like money was missing from their branches.
Postmasters were wrongly blamed for the shortfalls and made to cover the losses, with more than 900 convicted including some who were put in prison. Several took their own lives.
Watch the inquiry live at the link below.
Former subpostmaster Alan Bates, whose struggle for justice inspired the ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office founded Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA) after being wrongly accused of stealing over £7,000 from his branch in Llandudno, North Wales. In his witness statement, he said the Post Office had spent the 23 years he has been campaigning “denying, lying, defending, and attempting to discredit and silence me”.
Following a wave of public outrage after the TV show screened in January, the Government is pushing through new legislation to exonerate those convicted based on Horizon data.
Bates said he had “no sympathy” for Ex-Post Office boss Paula Vennells after she burst into tears on the stand during Day One of a three-day Inquiry in May. Speaking outside Aldwych House after Ms Vennells gave evidence, Mr Bates said: “The whole thing is upsetting for everybody, including for so many of the victims. I’ve got no sympathy really.” Asked if he thinks she is genuinely sorry, he added: “I wonder about these apologies, these are just words.”
The former CEO broke down in tears during a grilling over the scandal that ruined the lives of hundreds including Alan Bates at the Horizon IT Inquiry. The former chief executive issued an apology over the wrongful prosecution of postmasters, saying: “I am very, very sorry.” She acknowledged she had made the lives of campaigners “so much harder”.
The inquiry was shown bombshell messages sent to by her friend ex-Royal Mail boss Moya Greene, who she wrote that she could no longer support her as: “I think you knew.” Ms Vennells later broke down as she apologised for telling MPs the Post Office was successful in every court case against subpostmasters. She also wept as she was questioned over the suicide of a subpostmaster.
Ms Vennells, who was Post Office chief executive from 2012 to 2019, announced earlier this year that she would hand back her CBE amid public anger over the scandal in the wake of the ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office.
She repeatedly denied there was a problem with Horizon, including telling the Commons business committee in 2015 that there was no evidence of miscarriages of justice at the Post Office. She was expected to be questioned on whether she lied to MPs, if she knew postmasters’ accounts could be secretly accessed and why she continued prosecutions despite concerns.
