Sir Alan Bates has agreed a multimillion-pound settlement with the government, more than two decades after he began campaigning for justice for subpostmasters affected by the Horizon IT scandal. The 70-year-old, who was knighted last year, had previously accused the government of presiding over a “quasi-kangaroo court” system for compensation.
According to Sky News, Sir Alan’s original claim may have been in the region of £10m, indicating a final settlement of between £4m and £5m. In May, he revealed he had been handed a “take it or leave it” compensation offer amounting to 49.2% of his original claim. The settlement brings his own case to an end within the compensation scheme process.
A government spokesperson said: “We can confirm that Sir Alan’s claim has reached the end of the scheme process and been settled. We pay tribute to Sir Alan Bates for his long record of campaigning on behalf of victims and have now paid out over £1.2bn to more than 9,000 victims.”
More than 900 post office operators were convicted of offences including fraud, false accounting and theft between 1999 and 2015 after the faulty Horizon IT system falsely showed that money was missing from branch accounts. Their convictions were overturned last year by an unprecedented act of parliament.
Earlier this year, Sir Alan accused the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) of reneging on assurances given when the compensation schemes were set up. In July, the first volume of the public inquiry into the scandal found that at least 13 people had taken their own lives as a result of being accused of wrongdoing by the Post Office.
