Alan Bates tells Post Office inquiry it was ‘obvious’ organisation was ‘after’ him
Post Office victims campaigner Alan Bates has told the inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal that it was “pretty obvious” the organisation “were after me – one way or another”.
Mr Bates was also described as “unmanageable” by a former managing director at the organisation, documents disclosed at the inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal have revealed.
Appearing before the inquiry today, Mr Bates said the Post Office “didn’t like me standing up to them” – and argued that they terminated his contract as a result.
His answers were said to be sobering and compelling by current Post Office chief executive Nick Read, who was speaking to reporters outside the inquiry.
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Mr Bates’s role in bringing the scandal to light reached new levels of awareness in early January, when he was portrayed by actor Toby Jones in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
Mr Bates vs the Post Office. Pic: ITV/Shutterstock
Public and political interest in the industrial-scale miscarriage of justice suffered by sub-postmasters was transformed by the television drama.
Hundreds of sub-postmasters were prosecuted for theft and false accounting, while many more were ostracised and forced to leave their communities having borrowed large sums or lost their homes in an attempt to make up losses, many of which turned out to be due to errors in the Horizon accounting software used by the Post Office.
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Post Office inquiry resumes
What the Post Office knew in the early 2000s
The inquiry heard today that Mr Bates was in regular contact with the Post Office’s IT helpdesk and in the early 2000s wrote to officials in the organisation detailing his numerous problems with the Horizon system.
Over two years and nine months, while Mr Bates and his assistants were running his Post Office branch in Llandudno, Wales, they made 507 calls to the helpline – of which 85 related to Horizon and balancing problems.
A loss generated by Mr Bates’s branch was formally written off at the Post Office via a standard form with a “delete as appropriate” box.
At the time Mr Bates recalled hearing a manager at the Post Office say: “Oh, it’s another one – the Horizon losses.”
It wasn’t until 2015 that the Post Office ceased prosecuting sub-postmasters using wrongful data from Horizon.
No apology was made until 2019 after a successful High Court challenge taken by Mr Bates and other sub-postmaster victims.
How Post Office dealt with Mr Bates
After persistently flagging issues to officials and refusing to repay a loss generated by Horizon, Mr Bates was dismissed, by letter, with no reason given for the firing.
A Post Office manager had instructed Mr Bates to make good the loss of roughly £1,000 shown in his accounting by the IT system.
Asked what he understood to be the reason for the termination, Mr Bates said: “Basically, I think it was because a) they didn’t like me standing up to them in the first instance; b) they were finding it awkward; and c) I don’t think they could answer these questions and they had a feeling I was going to carry on in a similar vein going forward.”
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David Smith, then managing director of branch accounting at the Post Office, also described Mr Bates as “unmanageable” in an internal document on the integrity of the Horizon system.
The document detailed instances where problems with Horizon were raised.
Referring to Mr Bates’s troubles, the document said: “Bates had discrepancies… was dismissed because he became unmanageable.”
Document delays
Current Post Office CEO Mr Read denied that the Post Office’s repeated late submission of documents to the inquiry is an obstruction of the process.
Lawyers for the inquiry outlined a series of missed deadlines and broken agreements to provide documents in a timely manner so the material could be read, understood, and presented to witnesses.
Late disclosure in earlier stages of the inquiry was said by Jason Beer KC to be “highly disruptive” and the most recent delays were “very concerning”.
The Post Office has said it “regrets” that documents were not disclosed to the Horizon IT Inquiry “as early as all parties would have liked”.
A Post Office spokeswoman said: “We are fully committed to supporting the inquiry to establish the truth and we have disclosed almost half a million documents to date, reflecting both the unprecedented scale of the issues in the scandal and our commitment to transparency.”
Business
Vivergo: How US-UK trade deal could bring about collapse of huge renewable energy plant in Hull
The smell of yeast still hangs in the air at the Vivergo plant in Hull but the machines have fallen quiet.
More than 100 lorries usually pass through here each day, carrying 3,000 tonnes of wheat. It is milled, fermented and distilled. The final product is bioethanol, a renewable fuel that is then blended into E10 petrol.
This is a vast operation. It took several years to build, with considerable investment, but it is on the verge of closing down. Management and staff are holding out for a last-minute reprieve from the government but time is running out.
It’s been a turbulent journey. The plant was already being annihilated by US rivals, losing about £3m a month. Vivergo and Ensus, based in Teesside, blamed regulations that enable US companies to earn double subsidies.
They were pushing for regulatory change but then a killer blow: The US-UK trade deal, which allows 1.4 billion litres of American ethanol into the UK tariff-free (down from 19%).
“We’ve effectively given the whole of the UK market to the US producers,” said Ben Hackett, managing director at Vivergo.
“If we were to have the same support that the US industry has, if we could use genetically modified crops, we wouldn’t need that tariff. We would be able to compete. If we had the same energy costs. We wouldn’t need those tariffs.”
The government has the weekend to come up with a plan that could keep the business running. If it fails, Vivergo will begin issuing redundancy notices to its 160 staff.
Ben Hackett
It’s a devastating prospect for workers, many of them live in Hull and are nervous about alternative opportunities in the area.
Mike Walsh, a logistics manager who has been working at the plant for 14 years, said: “It’s not a great place to be at the moment. It’s a very well paid, very high-skilled role and they’ve (Vivergo) given everybody an opportunity in an area that doesn’t pay that well…. The jobs market isn’t as good as what people would like. So it does impact the local economy.”
He called on the government to “help us, save us, give this industry a future”.
His colleague Claire Wood, lead productions engineer, said: “I moved here after a career in oil and gas for 10 years, partly because I want to be part of the transition to renewable fuels. I can see so much potential here and it’s absolutely devastating to know that this place might be closed very, very shortly and that all that potential just goes away.”
Thousands more could be affected. Haulage companies may have to lay off truck drivers and farmers could also suffer a blow.
Vivergo makes bioethanol using wheat. That wheat is bought from farms from Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
Claire Wood
The National Farmers Union has sounded the alarm, saying: “Biofuels are extremely important for the crops sector, and their domestic demand of up to two million tonnes can be very important to balance supply and demand and to produce up to one million tonnes of animal feed as a by-product.”
Another bioproduct is carbon dioxide. The gas can be captured and used to put the fizz in drinks or injected into packaging to preserve food.
If Vivergo and Ensus were to go, Britain would lose as much as 80% of its output of carbon dioxide. Supplies are already tight across Europe, meaning this decision could compound shortages across a range of sectors, from meat-packing to healthcare.
The industry is calling on the government to help. Vivergo says it needs temporary financial support but that the government must create a regulatory and commercial environment in which it can thrive.
It says rules that award double subsidies to companies that use waste product in their bioethanol must be changed. At present, these rules are being used by US companies that make ethanol from Uldr – a by-product of processing corn. They argue this is not a genuine waste product.
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Another option is to grow the market. Industry leaders are calling on ministers to increase the mandated renewable fuel content in petrol from 10% to 15% and for an expansion into aviation fuels. That would allow British companies to carve out a space.
The government has been locked in talks with the company since June.
It said: “We will continue to take proactive steps to address the long-standing challenges it faces and remain committed to a way forward that protects supply chains, jobs and livelihoods.”
However, the time for talking is almost over.
Mr Hackett said he had no idea how the government would respond but he was firm with his stance, saying: “In times of global uncertainty, losing that energy certainty and supply from the UK is a problem.
“I think what they’re missing out on is the future growth agenda. We’re the foundation on which the green industrial strategy can be built. We make bioethanol that today decarbonises transport. Tomorrow it will decarbonise marine. It will decarbonise aviation.”
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