Mystery of the missing Mr Crozier
ITV drama on Post Office scandal has no mention of ex-Royal Mail chief who went on to head... ITV!
WHEN ITV decided to make a drama out of the Post Office scandal, it described it as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history.
Yet in telling the story of the hundreds of subpostmasters wrongly prosecuted for theft by the Post Office, ITV seems to have left out a key character – Adam Crozier, the head of Royal Mail Group who just happened to later become the broadcaster’s chief executive.
Mr Crozier was CEO of Royal Mail Group between 2003 and 2010, when the Post Office was part of it and subpostmasters were being pursued through the courts despite their insistence that it was the
‘No one should be allowed to get away with this’
organisation’s computer system, Horizon, that was at fault.
In Mr Bates vs The Post Office, Toby Jones takes the lead role of campaigner Alan Bates and Lia Williams plays Paula Vennells, chief executive of Post Office Ltd between 2012 and 2019. But there is no part listed for Mr Crozier, 59, who was born on the Isle of Bute and attended schools in Ayr and Falkirk before studying at Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University.
He left the Royal Mail in 2010 to become chief executive of ITV and a director of ITV Studios, the production company behind Mr Bates vs The Post Office. In his seven years at ITV, its share price quadrupled, with Mr Crozier building up the broadcaster’s production arm.
Earlier this month it was stated in the Commons that the public inquiry into the Horizon scandal and various court cases had heard that, as of August this year, at least 60 subpostmasters had died without seeing justice or receiving compensation, and at least four had taken their own lives.
Mr Crozier was called for by name to attend the inquiry last year by former employees whose lives had been destroyed by the unfounded accusations. Chris Trousdale told a hearing: ‘When I was prosecuted, Adam Crozier was the chief executive. I think he should be here answering questions, as well as all the other heads of the Post Office. I don’t think there is anyone who should be allowed to get away with this.’
He added: ‘Bosses were paid bonuses based on performance. Victims’ money [paid to balance shortfalls] in my opinion was going into the pockets of those that had persecuted them.’
ITV said: ‘Mr Bates vs The Post Office tells the story of the Post Office scandal from the perspective of a select group of former subpostmasters who formed the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, led by Alan Bates. Alan’s campaign for justice only began to make headway when Paula Vennells was promoted to chief executive, so that’s the relationship we dramatise.’