The UK Post Office Horizon Public Inquiry resumes today almost four years after it began, with public interest in the scandal having skyrocketed thanks to a TV drama. Giving evidence today is the hero of that series, Alan Bates, who led a group litigation against the Post Office in 2017.
The inquiry has now returned from its morning break and Alan Bates is still being questioned. 11:40:49The inquiry is now taking its morning break and is expected to resume at around 11.55am. We're now shown examples of the Post Office explaining why Alan Bates was dismissed - despite Mr Bates himself not being given a reason.
"I was annoyed, but I think it was partly expected in a way because it was pretty obvious that they were after me one way or another," he adds. He says he has found it"quite interesting" that the Post Office decided to let him go without any reason. He then receives a letter from a new retail line manager, Mike Wakely, instructing him to stop the practice of rolling over the inaccurate data and to"make good the outstanding losses". … but he adds he believes this correspondence ultimately led to his contract being terminated shortly afterward. On 19 December 2000, Alan Bates sent a letter to the Post Office about the Horizon faults, telling the company the problems were"very stressful" and"very worrying".
He adds:"I take from this that POL was aware at the time of many such complaints".Paul KelsoToby Jones portrayed Alan Bates as stubborn, acerbic and indefatigable in his pursuit of justice for sub-postmasters, and the man himself has been all of those things in the opening 20 minutes of his testimony.
"Once you got to meet people and realised it was not just yourself and realised the harm and injustice that had been visited on them, it's something you had to deal with, you couldn’t put down, and you had the support of the rest of the group in there as well."Jason Beer QC now asks Alan Bates to flesh out his initial thoughts on the Horizon system.
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