PROSECUTE POST OFFICE BOSSES ...OR I WILL DO IT
Battler Bates calls for ‘accountability’
POST OFFICE scandal campaigner Alan Bates has vowed to privately prosecute the bosses responsible if the Horizon IT inquiry fails to act.
He has asked the inquiry to clarify if a file will be passed to prosecutors and police, and said MPs should “change the remit of the inquiry” to ensure this.
And he added he would crowdfund legal action if necessary.
In a Radio 4 interview yesterday, Mr Bates said: “If the authorities are not prepared to take this forward, it’s pretty certain we’ll have to look at private prosecutions. It was fine when the Post Office brought private prosecutions, so if we’ve got to do it in return, so be it.”
He said subpostmasters want “accountability” as well as compensation. Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark
Rowley said in January fraud offences may have been committed but a probe could run until at least 2026. Mr Bates said: “We heard from many, many lawyers along the way there seem to be cases for people to answer.
“We’ve got to the stage that those who were making decisions and responsible for decisions being made are being heard.”
Giving evidence in front of Post
Office chief executive Nick Read on Tuesday, Mr Bates said it was “an atrocious organisation” that was “beyond saving”.
More than 700 subpostmasters were prosecuted from 1999 to 2015. They were charged with false accounting and many left bankrupt or in jail after Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon software made it appear money had gone missing.
Mr Bates’ contract was terminated in 2003 after he refused to accept liability for shortfalls at his branch in Llandudno, North Wales. His conviction was quashed in 2021.
The Post Office has come under fire since the airing of the ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, in which he was played by Toby
Jones.