A LAW firm hired to defend shameless Post Office bosses against Mr Bates was paid a staggering £37.5million while postmasters suffered.
Womble Bond Dickinson, based in London, represented the Post Office against civil class action from former subpostmaster Alan Bates in 2017.
Hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongly convicted of stealing after the company’s defective Horizon accounting system made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.
The Post Office also forced at least 4,000 branch managers to pay back cash based on the flawed data.
Some victims were sent to prison or financially ruined, others were shunned by their communities, while some took their own lives.
A TalkTV investigation can reveal the firm raked in £37,498,000 during a ten-year period between 2013 and 2023 for work on behalf of the Post Office relating to the group litigation, remediation, and the Horizon IT Public Inquiry.
Womble also served in an advisory role before that but did not play a role in the criminal prosecutions for the Post Office.
I felt there was a computer error, a computer problem, and they just ignored me.
Lee Castleton
And one victim of the scandal told TalkTV how he considered taking his own life.
Lee Castleton told Talk Today hosts Jeremy Kyle and Rosie Wright: “What are you doing so badly wrong in a retail business that you have to dig into your profits for £37.5million to defend those things?
“It’s just mind-bending. It’s absolutely horrendous. To be fair, if it was a commercial company and not backed by the one share holder, the government, it probably wouldn’t have done what it did. That in itself is a travesty.”
On ending up at the High Court, he said: “Obviously I had a Post Office and everything went wrong over a 12 week period.
“I made lots and lots of phone calls and nobody rang me back, 91 in fact, trying to alert them to the difficulties I was having.
Here is a timeline of key events from the scandal:
– 1999
The Horizon IT system starts to be rolled out in Post Office branches across the UK.
– 2000
Alan Bates reports issues with the Horizon IT system.
– 2003
Alan Bates has his contract terminated after refusing to accept liability for the shortfalls in the accounts at his Llandudno branch in North Wales.
– 2004
Lee Castleton, from Bridlington, East Yorkshire, was found to have a £25,000 shortfall at his branch. He was made bankrupt after he lost his legal battle with the Post Office.
– 2009
Computer Weekly magazine breaks the story of seven subpostmasters beginning their fight for justice.
The Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance is established.
– 2010
Pregnant subpostmaster Seema Misra, who ran a post office in West Byfleet, Surrey, is jailed after being accused of stealing £74,000.
– 2015
Post Office boss Paula Vennells tells the business select committee that there is no evidence of miscarriages of justice.
Post Office halts prosecutions of subpostmasters.
– 2017
Legal action is launched against the Post Office by a group of 555 subpostmasters.
– 2019
A High Court judge rules that Horizon contained a number of “bugs, errors and defects” and there was a “material risk” that shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts were caused by the system.
The Post Office agreed to pay out £58 million to the 555 subpostmasters.
Post Office boss Paula Vennells is appointed a CBE.
– 2020
The Post Office does not oppose 44 appeals against convictions of subpostmasters.
– 2021
A statutory inquiry looking into the failings of the Horizon system and the wrongful convictions of subpostmasters begins.
The Court of appeal quashes 39 wrongful crown court convictions.
– 2023
The Government announces that every wrongly convicted subpostmaster will be offered £600,000 in compensation.
– 2024
ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office airs for the first time.
The Metropolitan Police say they are looking at “potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions”, for example “monies recovered from subpostmasters as a result of prosecutions or civil actions”.
“I felt there was a computer error, a computer problem, and they just ignored me.
“They then deployed their external legal team which has now evolved to Womble Bond Dickinson and they took me to the High Court.
“I represented myself and I lost and they were rewarded £321,000 worth of fees and court costs.”
Talking about the scandal, which was thrust into the spotlight by the ITV1 drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, he added: “Some people had custodial sentences and, bless them, some people, four people took their own lives.
“I must admit, it was something that crossed my mind, I’m not proud of that. But very difficult.”
He continued: “It wasn’t just me. There are so many of us who have been through this horrible, horrendous turmoil.
“That whole package of what they bring to you, which is funded by the taxpayer, yet again, they can visit such horrendous travesties against you.
“You feel so helpless. It would be beyond belief that people can plan to dissect every part of your life.
“What hurts more, and continues to hurt, is that they are quite happy, even now, to throw million of taxpayers pounds at the schemes that they are currently talking about being the vindication, the lifting of all this horrendousness, and paying money to people who deserve to have an easier life whilst they are sitting six lawyers in front of those same people trying to drive down claims.
“Trying to make these people ‘re-punished’, this is what’s going on now and this has not ended.
“It’s like war. It’s not war for the other victims. This is a traumatised group of people who just want to sit down and talk about getting through to the end of this and living their lives and getting on.
“But this faceless group of people, who are either civil servants or MPs, I don’t even know who they are, are still multi-million pounds worth of fees being paid to lawyers in order to drive [this]…”
The Post Office told The Sun: “This legal firm acted as one of the Post Office’s solicitors for a long period of time and spend is for a wide range of work over a 10-year period.
“In 2019, the current management settled the long running Horizon litigation within four months and made a sincere apology.
“Since then, Post Office has actively supported efforts to compensate postmasters fairly and quickly and is determined to help right the wrongs of the past.
“To help enable the Post Office to fully engage with requests from the Horizon IT Inquiry, the firm continues to provide support to the Inquiry team with regard to previous data collection and disclosure exercises that had been undertaken, including as part of the Group Litigation Order.”
Womble Bond Dickinson said: “We have a great sympathy for all those affected by the failings of the Horizon IT system.
“It is important to clarify this Freedom of Information represents a gross fee figure for all types of work over a ten-year period.
“This includes significant third-party costs, such as barrister fees, which are typically paid by a law firm on behalf of a client.”
By Dame Priti Patel, Former Home Secretary
ANYONE watching Mr Bates vs The Post Office will be outraged by the Post Office’s incompetent and callous actions.
As the daughter of a former sub-postmaster, growing up helping in the family shop, I know how hard the victims worked to build up their business.
But these pillars of the community were bullied and betrayed by the Post Office, courts and successive Labour and Lib Dem ministers.
One of my constituents had his concerns about the Horizon system ignored by the Post Office.
Instead of listening, they terminated his contract and ruined his reputation.
He lost his business, incurred losses of more than £100,000 and his marriage broke down.
One of thousands of innocent lives shattered.
The Post Office also covered up their own wrongdoing and conspired to hide the truth about Horizon’s problems.
Concerns raised by MPs, myself included, were ignored, with deceitful responses given.
Even now, with convictions being overturned, some compensation paid and a public inquiry, evidence is being withheld.
None of the Post Office executives responsible have been punished or shown remorse.
In fact, they took fat cat pay cheques and moved on to senior roles in other organisations.
Paula Vennells was made a CBE.
All powers necessary should be used so they face justice, while Alan Bates and the heroes who fought courageously and won should be honoured.
