Alan Bates: Post Office run by ‘thugs in suits’

As we’ve been reporting, Alan Bates has finished giving evidence to the public inquiry now. 

He’s been questioned on the scandal since 10.30am, shedding light on many unanswered questions.

Scroll down for the latest as it happened and you can rewind the livestream to watch it too.

The chair of the Horizon IT Inquiry asked those present not to applaud Alan Bates as his evidence concluded.

Moments ago, Sir Wyn Williams said: “I can see hands preparing and I know what’s coming because it’s inevitable”. 

“I fully understand why they want to applaud you Mr Bates but I’m going to ask you not to for this reason,” he went on.

“That there will be witnesses who are coming in the next so forth who may not be as attractive to many of you and I would hate to think that I would have to intervene when they’re here to prevent bad behaviour. 

“So in the interests of people being even-handed, I’m asking you to remember that this is not a public meeting but a public inquiry, it’s not a court of law but it’s a judicial process, so please leave it there.”

Alan Bates has claimed the Government “doesn’t think anything” he has done is “worth anything”.

The former sub-postmaster told the inquiry how forensic accountants and lawyers who had helped him draft his claim had included a sum which reflected the campaigning work he had done over the past twenty years.

He said this had been rejected by those deciding on his claims. “The Government doesn’t think anything I’ve done over the past 20 years is worth anything,” he said. 

He confirmed his offer of compensation was “derisory” and “still is” and he was yet to receive another one.

When asked for his view on the Post Office, he said: “They are an atrocious organisation, they need disbanding it needs removing. 

“It needs building up again from the ground up. And as I’ve been quoted quite commonly, the whole of the postal service nowadays - it’s beyond it’s a dead duck.”

The government was having “back channel communications” with the Post Office despite telling lead campaigner Alan Bates that it was operating an “arm’s length relationship” with the organisation, the Horizon IT inquiry has heard.

A July 2013 email, sent from shareholder executive Mike Whitehead from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to Post Office staff, showed how the government requested a meeting with the Post Office to discuss how to respond to communications from Mr Bates.

Counsel to the inquiry Jason Beer KC asked: “Did you know or did you appreciate at the time that, notwithstanding what had been said by government ministers about operating an arm’s length relationship with the Post Office, there was nonetheless a back channel of communications between the government and the Post Office?”

Mr Bates said: “No, I can’t say I was aware of that, no.”

The inquiry has been shown an email chain about group litigation by sub-postmasters which began in 2017.

As several Post Office senior managers discussed how they would respond in a statement, Andrew Parsons from the law firm Bond Dickinson wrote: “I’m happy with the comms too. Plus let’s not forget that Alan Bates has a somewhat loose relationship with the truth...”

That was sent to then-Post Office lawyers Jane MacLeod and Mark Underwood, among others.

Presented with the email at the inquiry, Mr Bates let out a protracted chuckle, adding: “We’d had over 1,200 people who did apply to join the scheme and out of that, as I say, 550 were signed up to it.”

The boss of the Post Office has described Alan Bates’s evidence as “very sobering”.

Nick Read, the organisation’s current chief executive, is watching the former sub-postmaster give evidence in-person at the Horizon IT inquiry.

Asked about Mr Bates, Mr Read told reporters: “It was very, very compelling, the evidence he provided today. [It was] very sobering for those of us in the Post Office as we stand and we want to make sure that the culture of today’s Post Office learns the lessons from the past.”

The Post Office’s current chief executive Nick Read told journalists he was attending the inquiry in-person to “show his support to postmasters” and to “apologise”.

Mr Read, who is currently the subject of an external investigation, took over the leadership of the Post Office after Paula Vennells left the role in 2019. He is present at Aldwych House in central London to watch Mr Bates give evidence.

Asked by journalists in a break between hearings if he was sorry, Mr Read said: “Of course we are. 

“My job is to make sure we get redress and justice as quickly as possible for postmasters and I’ve come today to show my support to postmasters to of course apologise for this appalling scandal that has gone on for far too long.”

When questioned about the revelation that Post Office had made another series of late disclosures, Mr Read said: “We are trying to make sure that we deliver and disclose as many of the documents as we possibly can – 176 million documents we’ve been through, 500,000 have been disclosed and 73,000 since February.”

Alan Bates is one of several former sub-postmasters who led the fight for justice after hundreds of people were wrongfully prosecuted over shortfalls flagged by the Horizon accounting software.

Their stories rose to prominence in the popular ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office which aired recently.

Alan Bates wrote to Paula Vennells because he “did not think her staff were feeding back to her”.

The inquiry heard how Mr Bates asked for a meeting with the former Post Office chief executive in May 2013, while forensic accounting firm Second Sight was still conducting its investigation.

In his witness statement, Mr Bates wrote: “There was a concern that perhaps the information was not getting through to Ms Vennells, as I did not think her staff were feeding back to her.

“I was concerned that she was not being told the full story and so I wanted to ensure that she was being accurately informed of the whole situation.”

He added: “This was, perhaps, a failure in the way that Ms Vennells handled the situation in that I did not feel confident that she had been receiving accurate updates and was truly invested in the investigation and the subsequent events.”

The Post Office appeared to “do anything and everything” to hide the failures of the Horizon IT system, Alan Bates has said. 

A letter was shown to the inquiry which Mr Bates had sent to his Post Office manager after his contract was terminated.

“It seems your ‘organisation’ will do anything and everything to try and keep the failures of Horizon hidden, regardless of who they have to trample down on the way such as us or our community,” he wrote.

“I can assure you of my continued and now increased resolve to bring the real facts of what is going on to those who will have no choice but to act, regardless of whether it takes years.”

Alan Bates said he and the Justice For Subpostmaster Alliance (JFSA) were “highly suspicious” of forensic accountants when they were first brought in to conduct an independent investigation on the Horizon system.

The investigators, who were tasked with what became to be known as “Project Sparrow”, were later fired by the organisation.

Speaking to the inquiry, Mr Bates said: “We were highly suspicious of it because - were they being brought in to, if you like, to whitewash it on behalf of Post Office?”

However, the former sub-postmaster described how he became more confident in the accountants.

He wrote in his witness statement: “My impression of Second Sight improved from initial contact with them.

“I felt more confident in their ability and could see them operating more independently from POL (Post Office Limited).

“My main reservation at the start had been the fact that they had been selected by POL, however, I came to see that they were keen on working as an unbiased third party which improved my confidence in them as an investigating body.”

In case you hadn’t yet seen, former sub-postmaster Alan Bates has resumed giving evidence following a lunch break.

The founder of the Justice For Subpostmaster Alliance, whose fight for justice was the focus of the landmark ITV drama Mr  Bates vs The Post Office which captivated the nation, is giving evidence throughout this afternoon.

Alan Bates has told the Horizon IT Inquiry that he took offence to a letter from the former postal affairs minister Sir Ed Davey after he claimed the government adopted an “arm’s length” relationship with the Post Office, despite being its sole shareholder.

Questioned by counsel to the inquiry Jason Beer KC on why he took offence to Sir Ed’s letter in 2010, which declined an invitation to meet with Mr Bates, the former subpostmaster said: “It was because of the structure, wasn’t it.

“The government was the sole shareholder, they were the owners, as such, of all of this.

“How can you run or... take responsibility for an organisation without having some interest in... or trying to be in control?”

The Liberal Democrats have responded to Alan Bates’ evidence to the Horizon IT inquiry and his criticism of Sir Ed Davey, who now leads the party. A spokesman said: 

Alan Bates is a hero for all he has done to represent subpostmasters through this horrific miscarriage of justice.

Ed was the first minister to meet with Mr Bates and took his concerns to the Post Office and the Federation of Subpostmasters - Ed, like Mr Bates and so many others, was lied to.

No one knew the scale of these lies until the whistleblower from Fujitsu revealed the truth several years later.

Ed has said that he’s sorry that he didn’t see through the Post Office’s lies, and that it took him five months to meet Mr Bates.

The Liberal Democrats are calling on the Government to ensure postmasters get full and fair compensation urgently, and Post Office executives who lied for decades are held properly to account.

Alan Bates has said he blames civil servants more than ministers for stalling his campaign. 

In a letter Mr Bates said he found Ed Davey’s initial letter which rejected a meeting with him as “not only disappointing” but also “offensive”.

The inquiry was shown correspondence between Mr Bates and Mr Davey, then-Postal Affairs Minister and now the Liberal Democrats leader.

However, when asked about the correspondence, Mr Bates told the inquiry: “I hold the civil service more to blame in a lot of these instances, why things never progressed at the time. 

“Because I’m sure between them and Post Office briefing ministers, they were briefing them in the direction they wanted to brief them in, not what was for the benefit of the group or the individual here.”

He added: “I hold the officials far more guilty in all of this than politicians.”

The Horizon IT Inquiry has paused for a lunch break until just before 2pm. 

Scroll down in this blog to see everything that has happened so far. 

You can also rewind the livestream at the top of this page.

Alan Bates will resume giving evidence during the afternoon session.

Alan Bates said he has not returned to work since being dismissed as a subpostmaster due to his campaign for justice, adding: “I didn’t set out to spend 20 years doing this.”

The former sub-postmaster told the inquiry: “The key issue has always been to expose the truth right from the outset because the other things, they followed on - once you know the truth about issues, the rest will hopefully follow on afterwards.

“I didn’t set out to spend 20 years doing this.

“I hadn’t expected to be doing this so much by myself but it got more and more complex and it was harder and harder to share out work as a bigger group to take things forward.

The inquiry has been shown a letter sent to Mr Bates from Colin Baker, then the general secretary of the NFSP trade union for sub-postmasters.

The letter, dated January 13, 2004 addresses Mr Bates’s concerns about the mounting errors with the Horizon accounting system.

But Mr Baker concludes that it “works well”. 

Mr Baker’s latter reads: “We are aware that there were some disputes around the time that offices migrated from the manual system to the Horizon System, but we are now of the view that Horizon works well and that there are no real problems in Post Offices which are operated by the Horizon System.”

The union for sub-postmasters “continually failed” to back them over the Horizon scandal, Alan Bates has told the public inquiry. 

He said in his witness statement: “The NFSP (National Federation of SubPostmasters) were the only organisation that POL (Post Office Limited) had decided it would recognise to represent Subpostmasters’, but the fact that they continually failed to provide real support for SPMs in Horizon matters was widely known. 

“To the best of my knowledge, the NFSP has never once supported a SPM in any court case where issues surrounding the Horizon system have been questioned. In point of fact, the NFSP has actively supported POL in their Horizon position on many occasions.”

Asked about the union by Jason Beer KC during the inquiry on Tuesday, Mr Bates agreed that it had “nearly always agreed with the Post Office and sometimes said to the sub-postmaster ‘come on, own up tell them what you did with the money’”.

Mr Beer asked him: “To what extent has the NFSP assisted you with establishing the facts in your case?” Mr Bates replied: “None.”

Mr Beer asked: “To what extent has the NFSP assisted you in seeking redress in your case?” Mr Bates replied: “None.”

A “comprehensive review” into Alan Bates’s case may have resulted in a five-paragraph document, the inquiry has heard.

As Mr Bates gave evidence the inquiry was shown several documents in which the Post Office cited carrying out a “comprehensive review” into why it terminated the former sub-postmaster’s contracted.

Yet referring to a document shown to the inquiry, counsel Jason Beer KC said: “It may be that these five paragraphs on this undated piece of paper are the comprehensive review that has been referred to in correspondence.”

Within the document, the author referred to “anecdotal evidence on file which demonstrates bates unsuitability as a postmaster.”

“Was that ever put to you: that you were unsuitable to be a postmaster?”, asked Mr Beer. “No, but they’d appointed me in the first instance,” said Mr Bates.

He said “his was just them flexing their muscles and deciding they were right and I was wrong”.

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.

“This follows searches of over 176 million documents, 230 physical locations and third-party sites, and across multiple systems.

“During the past six weeks, since the inquiry announced its current hearings timetable, we have disclosed the vast majority of documents required for those witnesses but regret a very small proportion of documents were not disclosed as early as all parties would have liked.

“The inquiry is examining issues that spanned more than two decades, including a lengthy period when Post Office was part of Royal Mail Group.

“Disclosure is therefore highly complex and we continue to do all we can to deliver continuous improvements and incorporate past learnings into the disclosure process to avoid the risk of delays to the inquiry’s timetable.”

Alan Bates was dismissed because he “became unmanageable”, according to a presentation prepared by a Post Office executive.

Powerpoint slides prepared for a presentation on “Horizon integrity” by Dave Smith - then Head of Change and IS at the Post Office - was shown to the inquiry today.

Under the heading, “Of the cases I am aware of”, a slide read: “Bates had discrepancies but was dismissed because he became unmanageable.

“Clearly struggled with the accounting and despite copious support did not follow instructions.”

Mr Beer asked: “Was that ever explained to you that you became unmanageable?”

“No not at all,” Mr Bates said.

“Did you struggle with accounting?” Mr Beer asked.

“No, not at all,” repeated Mr Bates.

“Did you seek to follow the instructions that you had been given by the Post Office?” asked Mr Beer.

“Basically try and bankrupt myself? No, not to that extent,” said Mr Bates.

Alan Bates has said he “probably wouldn’t be here today” if the Post Office had returned his initial investment when it terminated his contract.

He told the inquiry he felt “quite annoyed to put it mildly” when his contract was terminated with three months’ notice - but said he would have been happy had the organisation returned his original investment.

Mr Bates and his wife purchased their Welsh Post Office branch for £175,000 - with an £8,000 deposit.

“This was a major investment for Suzanne and me,” his witness statement reads.

Mr Bates said he would have been happy for the Post Office to pay back his “initial investment”  and “take the post office away”.

He told the inquiry: “I would have been quite happy for them to do that and I probably wouldn’t be here if that had happened.”

He added: “I felt they were going to make a lesson of my case because a number of other people knew what was going on at that time and I think it was something that the Post Office liked to try to give lessons on how they were in charge.”

Nick Read, the current chief executive of the Post Office, is attending the inquiry in person to see Mr Bates give evidence.

Mr Read, who is currently under investigation in relation to allegations made by a former HR director, took on his role in 2019 - after the organisation’s former boss Paula Vennells left.

Nick Read, the Post Office chief executive, has told staff he “absolutely refutes” bullying claims and allegations about his salary made by the organisation’s former chairman.

Henry Staunton wrote to MPs earlier this week claiming Mr Read treated Jane Davies, the Post Office’s former human resources director, like a “pain in the arse” for “focusing on tackling the toxic culture rather than prioritising Read’s salary”.

Mr Staunton, who was sacked from his role in January, said he believed the chief executive’s behaviour “constituted bullying” and that Mr Read should have focused more on tackling misogyny rather than “agitating about his pay”.

Alan Bates has recalled the moment his Post Office contract was terminated “without giving a reason”.

The inquiry was shown the four-paragraph letter sent to him on August 5, 2023, by a retail line manager, giving him three months notice of termination of his contract.

“The letter speaks for itself - it gave you no explanation for the reason for termination of your contract,” the leading counsel to the inquiry Jason Beer KC says.

Mr Bates replies: “That’s correct.”

Mr Beer asks: “Was any such explanation given to you by the post office at this time?”

“Never,” Mr Bates replies.

Asked how it made him feel, Mr Bates says: “I think it was partly expected in a way because it was pretty obvious that they were after me one way or another.

“The build up of correspondence over the period was certainly pointing in that direction. They decided to go for any reason they wanted, three months notice without giving a reason.”

Asked why he thinks they really got rid of him, Mr Bates says: “Basically I think it’s because A, they didn’t like be 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.”

Alan Bates and his assistants made 507 calls to the Post Office’s helpline during his time running his branch.

The campaigner told the inquiry that those employed by the helpline stated the “bleeding obvious” and suggested things he had “tried” already. 

Mr Bates said he first contacted the helpline in December 13 over a £6,000 variance that he spotted on his account two months after the new Horizon system was installed.

He made seven calls that day - one of which was around an hour in length. 

His witness statement reads: “I contacted the helpline seeking support and as to why this apparent variance had occurred. They were unable to assist in any meaningful way.”

“Were they any assistance?” Mr Beer asked.

“Not really,” said Mr Bates. “Stating the bleeding obvious, I think, really, is one description I might use. But it was all things that I’d tried.”

Mr Beer then said that Post Office disclosures later confirmed that in the two year, nine month period up until Mr Bates’s contract was terminated in November 2003, he and his assistants made 507 calls the the helpline - of which 85 related to Horizon and balancing problems. “Yes”, Mr Bates confirmed. 

In his witness statement to the inquiry, Alan Bates said the Post Office had spent the entirety of the 23 years he has been campaigning “denying, lying, defending, and attempting to discredit and silence me”.

He said: “Prior to and since my termination from the branch, I have spent the last 23 years campaigning to expose the truth, and justice, not just for myself, but for the entire group of wrongly treated/wrongly convicted subpostmasters.

“I have dedicated this period of my life to this cause which, sadly, has been necessary since Post Office Limited has spent this entire period denying, lying, defending, and attempting to discredit and silence me and the group of SPMs that the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA) represents.”

Alan Bates said the partnership between sub-postmasters and the Post Office was “very one-sided”.

He told the inquiry: “I had been led to believe that sub-postmasters were working in partnership with the Post Office, and if the Post Office wanted me to measure up to the standards they required, I expected them to do the same for me.

“However, over time, it soon became evident that the ‘partnership’ was very one-sided, and it really was a question of ‘you will do as you are told and if you don’t like it, you can’t complain and there is no redress on this, and you just get on and keep your mouth closed’ - that’s how it works.”

Alan Bates has said he was “quite positive” about Horizon when it first came in.

The inquiry has heard how he worked for 12 years in the heritage and leisure projects management sector before he and his wife took over a Post Office in their forties.

During his course of work he developed experience in the electronic point of sale epos systems and software.

Mr Bates told the Inquiry: “I think when Horizon came in, I think I was quite positive about it, because I knew what technology and these sorts of systems could do, so I was quite positive.

“But I found it a bit frustrating, once the system was in and was operating, I found there were many shortcomings.”

Jason Beer KC has noted that Bates’ five-and-a-half years was a “relatively” short tenure compared to other sub-postmasters.

“It is. Sorry, it is but it’s due to Post Office not to myself,” Mr Bates said, before Mr Beer then noted that Mr Bates has taken more than four times that timespan campaigning for other sub-postmasters.

Alan Bates has told the inquiry of his “stubbornness” in leading the fight for justice.

The counsel noted a line in his witness statement in which Bates describes how he has “dedicated this part of [his] life to this cause”.

Asked whether this “required dedication” or “was a cause”, Mr Bates said: “Yes I think it’s also stubbornness as well.”

He added: “I mean as you got to meet people and realised it wasn’t just yourself and you saw the harm and injustice that had been descended upon them, it was something that you felt you had to deal with.

“It’s something you couldn’t put down and you had the support of the rest of the group there as well.”

Alan Bates has now been sworn in to give evidence and he is beginning to speak. 

He is being questioned by leading counsel to the inquiry Jason Beer KC.

Mr Bates’s witness statement is 59 pages long excluding exhibit pages.

Phase five of the inquiry has begun with news of last-minute late disclosure of thousands of documents – with 5,000 documents produced by the Post Office since the end of March.

The Post Office’s previous incidents of late disclosure have already been described as “sub-optimal” by the inquiry.

And since the end of the last phase on February 2, the Post Office has released thousands of documents to the inquiry, the inquiry heard on Tuesday. 

Some of the documents recently released relate to high profile witnesses such as former Post Office executives Paula Vennells and Angela van den Bogerd.

Post Office has previously been told it must provide documents at least six weeks before witnesses they relate to take the stand. The documents include communications between personal assistants and employers.

The chair has decided to carry on with the inquiry. “I am unshakable in my belief that this inquiry should not last for a day longer than is strictly necessary and if that means that the pace at which we proceed causes significant work pressures for us all then I’m afraid that’s the price we’re all going to have to pay,” Sir Wyn Williams said.

It is unclear whether some witnesses may need to be recalled as a result of the late disclosure 

The chair of the Horizon IT inquiry is now speaking. 

Sir Wyn Williams speaks of a “highly undesirable state of affairs” in which the Post Office “documents haven’t caught up with the witnesses, so to speak” when individuals are called to the inquiry. 

This is because certain documents have not been made available to the core participants in the inquiry by the time they are addressed in hearings.

“Make no mistake everyone, I understand fully that the problems with disclosure are capable of creating very significant pressures for all the participants in the inquiry,” he says. 

But he warns that long breaks in proceedings to address the issue “would also cause very damaging stresses” on all involved, adding that he plans to address the issue with dedicated disclosure hearings.

The row over the Post Office scandal and the hundreds of victims who are yet to be fully compensated has dominated headlines.

What caused the Post Office scandal? What did sub-postmasters do when they found out they had shortfalls?

How many sub-postmasters have had their convictions overturned? And who has received compensation?

Here are the answers to questions you may have about the Horizon row, which still shows no sign of abating.

We explain all here

In Colwyn Bay, amid the sweeping splendour of the North Wales coast, Suzanne Sercombe and Alan Bates are allowing themselves to dream of moving on. 

The extraordinary reaction to ITV’s drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office means its real-life stars might, at long last, be awarded compensation, after two decades of struggle against an institution that has shown itself to be as corrupt and malignant as any in Britain.

Ask Sercombe, 68, what she and her partner Bates, 69, will spend any money they are awarded on, and her reply is emphatic. “We will move... We both want to move house. Definitely.”

In the drama that has shaken the country, she is portrayed by Julie Hesmondhalgh, while dogged Bates – now considered a national treasure – is played by Toby Jones.

The couple, who ran the post office in Llandudno, are depicted throughout the harrowing 20-year ordeal caused by the faulty Horizon IT system: first, spuriously served three months notice of termination of contract; then moving to a new home from where they ran – and still run – the campaign for justice.

Read more about the couple here

Before Alan Bates’ evidence begins Jason Beer KC, the lead counsel for the inquiry, is raising an issue of disclosure.

He tells the inquiry chair Sir Wyn Williams that the Post Office’s “late and problematic” disclosure of documents has been a consistent theme of the inquiry so far.

Our livestream of the proceedings has begun at the top of this page.

Lawyers are currently going through some technicalities to begin phase five of the inquiry.

Alan Bates will then begin giving evidence, with leading counsel to the inquiry Jason Beer KC to question him.

The youngest victim of the Post Office scandal, who was a sub-postmaster aged 18, has called echoed a minister’s call for jail for those responsible.

Christopher Head, now 36, told Sky News: “People need to have back the money and be compensated for what they have been through, but I think ultimately people want to see somebody held accountable for what has gone on.

“We don’t want to see one person scapegoated, we need to see all of the evidence put out there in the public domain and we need to know exactly who knew what and when... whether it’s Fujitsu, Post Office, in Government or whatever.

“I don’t think anybody will be able to move on fully until that is done.”

Asked what holding those responsible to account means, he said: “We need to see the evidence but if that means somebody has perverted the course of justice or committed any other criminal offences then obviously they need to see the ultimate consequence of that, and if that means going to prison like minister Hollinrake said yesterday then that needs to be done, otherwise we’ll keep seeing scandals like this over and over again.”

In case you missed it, the Post Office minister said on Monday that those found to be responsible for the scandal should “go to jail”.

Government minister Kevin Hollinrake said the inquiry was “unearthing evidence”. He added: 

Where evidence has been established and people should be prosecuted ... I certainly feel, people within the Post Office and possibly further afield should go to jail.

[The rule of law] has failed, failed these people [sub-postmasters], inexcusably. We do believe in process, that’s the country we are very proud to live in. But if the threshold is met, the evidence is there, criminal prosecutions can be undertaken and those prosecutions, those people, are found guilty, then as I say, I have no reservations in saying people should go to jail.

Alan Bates has arrived at Aldwych House in central London ahead of giving evidence at the Horizon IT Inquiry this morning. 

The former sub-postmaster who was at the centre of the ITV drama and the founder of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, was captured speaking to a large pack of reporters and photographers several minutes ago. 

Another victim of the Horizon scandal Jo Hamilton, who was portrayed in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, has arrived at the inquiry to see Alan Bates give evidence.

She previously described how she first noticed issues with the accounts of her Hampshire Post Office in 2003. 

“I saw that I had a discrepancy of £2,000,” she said. “I called the helpline and they asked me to try certain things on the system which turned the debt into £4,000 in front of our eyes. Whatever we did it wouldn’t go away.”

She was told that her contract stated that she must cover the shortfall. “They took money out of my wages,” she said. “I was all alone, being told that I was the only person this had ever happened to.”

You can remind yourself of how far this stretches back by scrolling through our timeline below. 

Alan Bates has suggested those responsible for the Post Office scandal should be prosecuted, ahead of his first appearance at the inquiry into the flawed Horizon system.

Speaking to the BBC on Monday, he said: “People have got to be held accountable, I see no sign of it yet – but I think after the inquiry that’s definitely the next stage.

“And then we start looking at prosecutions, not just that as well. Huge bonuses have been paid to people over the years. Some of that should be clawed back.”

Read more here

A subpostmistress said “we need to know the truth”, ahead of appearances by senior Post Office officials at the next stage of the Horizon IT Inquiry.

Jacqueline Franklin told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that she wanted to see “honesty, truth and to let people know what’s happened instead of covering everything up and white-washing what’s been going on”.

“These people at the top have just hidden the truth from postmasters. It took a TV programme to bring this to the fore.

“It shouldn’t have happened, it should have been out there and the truth should be out there. We need to know the truth.”

Ms Franklin, who took over a Warwickshire post office from her mother, who died in 2019, added: “We spent evenings looking for money which had gone missing.

“We were always told that we had to make good the cash, so cash had to be made good out of your own pockets.”

Good morning and welcome to our live updates of the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry. 

Alan Bates, the former sub-postmaster who has become the face of the fight for justice for the hundreds of people prosecuted over the accounting software, will be giving evidence as the inquiry begins its fifth phase. 

He is due to start his testimony at around 10am.

Stay with us on this blog for all the updates as they happen.