Sub-postmasters set deadline for compensation ahead of legal action

Sir Alan Bates says a "specialist law firm" will be hired if the date is missed

Author: Rory GannonPublished 27th Nov 2024

Victims of the Horizon scandal have set ministers a deadline to improve the compensation scheme.

Sir Alan Bates wrote in a newsletter to the Group Litigation Order that a "specialist law firm" will be hired if the deadline is missed.

The scheme had been set up after sub-postmasters won their court battle in the High Court in 2019.

Throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s, hundreds of sub-postmasters were accused of stealing money from their branches, despite the discrepancies being faulty software.

The case was brought back into the public eye through the drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which highlighted some of the victim's stories.

Government ministers confirmed there would be improvements in getting compensation back, with Labour adding they would repay the money that had been lost by victims.

However, in the newsletter Sir Alan said that after a series of meetings with other people affected, a "deadline" had been set for the government to make improvements.

He then added should the deadline pass with no change, another meeting would be held to raise legal action against the goverenment.

"At which time, a specialist law firm will be invited to address the group on how we can swiftly move this whole matter back to the courts to resolve," he wrote in the newsletter.

"This might also involve the other schemes as well as our own, and it would mean we would have to fundraise once again, but this time nationally and I have no doubt we could raise the money required."

Sub-postmaster Chris Head was the UK's youngest branch manager, said that changes need to be made otherwise legal actions needs to be considered.

"All options have to be on the table. Time and time again, both the Post Office and the government can't always be trusted to do the right thing and deliver what they promised - which was full and fair compensation," Chris said.

"There's far too many people that haven't been paid and if any of them take anywhere near as long as my claim currently has, then we're a long way away from completion of the scheme itself."

Chris, from Sunderland, added that the mental toll of taking his claim through the courts has been large, and left him exhausted.

"It is a very difficult process, it does affect you mentally - it wears you down and makes you very, very tired.

"But we've fought this long and this hard and we're not going to give up. We're not asking for anything special, we're just asking to be treated as we've been promised - which is to put us back in the position we likely would have been in, as far as monetary awards can do so."

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