MR BATES VS THE POST OFFICE - mon to thur ITV 9pm - tv pace no spoilers

[Blondeshavemorefun]

Mon to thur

Mr Bates vs The Post Office is an ITV drama based on a true story of injustice starring Toby Jones, Julie Hesmondhalgh, WIll Mellor and Monica Dolan.
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Mr Bates vs The Post Office is a hard-hitting ITV1 drama starring Toby Jones, Monica Dolan and Julie Hesmondhalgh among others.

The series details one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history, where thousands of Post Office sub postmasters and postmistresses were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a defective IT system.

Mr Bates vs The Post Office follows Alan Bates (Toby Jones), a sub postmaster who decided to fight back against a scandalous miscarriage of justice.

He was one of thousands of sub postmasters and postmistresses who between 2000 and 2013 were falsely accused of theft due to financial discrepancies thrown up by the flawed Horizon computerised accounting system.

More than 700 were prosecuted and several went to prison while others lost their homes and life savings trying to pay back the money the Post Office claimed was missing.

Many were unfairly ostracised from their communities, who believed they were criminals.

In 2009 Alan Bates decided to form the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance (https://www.jfsa.org.uk/), uniting thousands of his colleagues to
fight to clear their names.

💕

@SwedishEdith am watching the documentary now, my understanding is that there were technical problems with the system from the start, which the PO covered up. As opposed to deliberately tampering.

And if the money they stole off all the post office owners tech went into 'profits'

Then it can come back out again

Po should pay the £46 million costs

As isn't that what happens when you win a case

The other side pays the losses /fees

@SwedishEdith I believe fujitsu were trying to fix errors remotely in the Post office accounts but failling to tell the postmasters the data had been changed. its an utter disgrace how these people were treated. Ordinary working people trying to make a living and serve their communities.

I wish there was a march or demonstration as i would go.

I wondered that but some closed for good

She left Post Office and was appointed Head of People for the Welsh FA. This led to the CEO leaving after losing a vote of confidence, and her contract was terminated after 4 months. She does not appear to have worked since.

Some did have issues after taking over. Some closed for good.

It may be that some Fujitsu staff had found ways to benefit personally from tampering with subpostmasters' accounts, but the vast majority of it seems to have been trying to fix errors. However, it was entirely uncontrolled. Too many people had far too much access to the system and, with no records, it was impossible to know who had done what. And we know that at least some of their efforts to fix things actually made things worse.

That is indeed what happens, although it often doesn't cover the winner's full costs, but that wasn't the issue here. The problem is that the subpostmasters had to use external funding to cover their litigation costs. The organisation funding the costs in this situation doesn't just want their money back. They want some return on their investment. Given that there is always a chance they will lose all their money, they want a significant return. The deal, therefore, is that they get back significantly more than the funding they have provided. Part of the reason the subpostmasters settled when they did was that there was a genuine concern that the rising amount they would have to pay their funders if they carried on could have left them with nothing at all even if they won.

Thanks for explaining that @prh47bridge

Does anyone know of there is a total figure of how much the PO stole off PM and SPM under these Horizon claims? It must go into the millions!

The public inquiry has been underway some years. Their website is

www.postofficehorizoninquiry.org.uk/

From the timetable it looks like evidence gathering ends spring/summer this year.

Hopefully it will result in anyone found to have broken the law to be sent down for the maximum term allowed.

However that's no excuse for not paying compensation already - or at least immediately now.

Thanks @Channellingsophistication and @Jellykat.

Just talking about it at home and wondered if it may have been human errors on entering data but it was the lack of ability for postmasters to go back and check entries again before submitting. And, as you say, no audit trail to show when Fujitsu took over and made changes.

Not sure why you demanded "No Spoilers", OP.
The subject matter for this docu-drama has been in the public domain for a couple of years.

Re Honours: T'was ever thus. Back in the 1960s my DF often voiced the thought that honours should be abolished because the system was, basically, being abused by politicians.

Because it is tv paced

And what I usually put in my titles

So if someone talking about thur e4 if they binged when people were watching it on Monday e1

I keep pondering what Alan and Suzanne lived on after they ‘left’ the Post Office?

I think one of the biggest elements of Fujitsu staff being able to tamper results is not whether they did or not or why they did. Just the fact that they could and it was not recorded or audited means that any convictions on the PO staff for theft or fraud could not stand up - because it couldn't be proved it was definitively the PO staff that stole the money or made fraudulent entries vs Fujitsu staff making erroneously changes.

They lost their Post Office counter, and with it their investment of around £60k, but they still had the shop.

I found the series extremely moving. I shed a few tears.

I found it shocking that out of the £58 million, just £12 was left after legal fees. I mean, that is an utterly massive amount that the legal process cost.

The acting was fantastic. Really very good. I am glad I watched. I did know some of what happened but like a lot of news, you watch but don’t fully digest or hear the full story. The drama is highlighted that for me.

What has that got to do with anything? It's an ITV production.

I hadnt realised that over 200 people had gone to prison I thought only a handful. To date a total of 93 convictions overturned. So they are still fighting and although some compensation agreed I dont think they have received money yet. Its shocking that there been no accountability by the two organisations involved.

I’m so glad this drama was done it was fantastic and so moving and so important that this has been highlighted.

PV was ceo from 2012. From Alan’s boxes Horizon was installed 1999? So who was in charge from 99-2012? Why weren’t they mentioned at all?

Im glad I watched this but it has infuriated and upset me. These poor people had to wait so long for the truth whilst the PO basically gaslit them. And still not resolved.

And brings things into sharp focus how the powers that be are happy to bring down the little people but not any of those in charge And it scares me the powers that they are giving themselves. (Like dwp/bank accounts/AI)

On top of all the other scandals around this case was the fact that the auditors / security people in the PO had to classify the sub postmasters who they were investigating according to race, with classification based on offensive terminology.

This has been reported quite widely but didn't see it in the Mr Bates programme

I'm Glad it was shown as well and highlighted the issue

As I said previously I hadn't heard of this - not knew the extremeness of it all🥲

I just hope they finally get their money via po profits or wherever all their money went

And yes would love to know the total they stole /swindled off these like people

And well done Alan for fighting this so long for everyone

Maybe he deserves an obe !!

@Blondeshavemorefun I think he was awarded one but turned it down because Paula Vennells still had hers.