Horizon scandal champion Alan Bates knighted

Horizon IT scandal campaigner Alan Bates has been made a knight, accepting the honour after Paula Vennells, the disgraced former Post Office chief executive, was forced to hand back her own.

Sir Alan accepted the award for services to justice in the King’s Birthday Honours List, six months after declining the offer of an OBE.

He told The Telegraph that he was accepting an honour the second time around in a show of support for other sub-postmasters wrongly accused of theft in the largest miscarriage of justice in British legal history.

Sir Alan said he had declined the offer of an OBE at the end of last year because at the time Ms Vennells still had possession of her CBE.

Ms Vennells bowed to public pressure and returned her CBE in February in the wake of the outcry prompted by the broadcast of the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

Sir Alan, who rose to prominence in the wake of the series, said it would have been “an insult” to reject the knighthood. The award, he said, would add another “string to my bow” in the continuing fight to secure compensation.

Sir Alan learnt of the offer of his knighthood from an email received while he was watching Ms Vennells giving evidence at the public inquiry into the scandal last month.

Reflecting on the day he was told of the award, Sir Alan, 69, said: “In some ways it felt like it was just another thing that had happened on that day – but I did feel honoured by it.

“I had to weigh it up because I had refused the OBE previously – partly because it felt that it wasn’t right to accept it while Paula Vennells still had a CBE at the time.”

Ms Vennells has apologised for her role in the scandal and broke down in tears on several occasions when giving evidence.

Sir Alan said:  “The time I was asked about the OBE, it felt wrong – certainly with Paula Vennells having the CBE for her services, so-called, to Post Office and I felt it would have been quite offensive to many of the group [of wrongly accused subpostmasters] if I’d accepted it.”

Sir Alan, who lives in Llandudno, in north Wales, added: “I always said that I wouldn’t accept anything until all of this was over – but then I decided to speak to a confidante about it all, someone who could offer an unbiased but knowledgeable perspective.”

He said the friend emphasised how Sir Alan had done “a lot of the heavy lifting” and gathered a lot of support for other sub-postmasters.

He said he had received “hundreds of emails and letters of support” and that  “a lot of people do seem to think that I should receive some sort of recognition for the work that I’ve done for them or on their behalf”.

As founder of the the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA), he led 554 others to a landmark victory in the High Court in 2019 in which subpostmasters accepted £57.75 million in damages from the Post Office. Claimants were left with little money after legal fees were paid.

The fallout from the scandal has forced the Government into passing a law quashing hundreds of convictions of subpostmasters and offering improved compensation.

The Post Office, which is publicly owned, hounded subpostmasters who were wrongly accused of theft and fraud for errors thrown up by the faulty Horizon IT system, developed by the software giant Fujitsu. Four subpostmasters committed suicide as a consequence while 230 were wrongly sent to prison.

Sir Alan said: “Obviously it’s my honour, but I do feel that I am accepting it on behalf of the group and for the hell they have been through – it is a recognition of how serious all of this has been.

He added: “It could be seen as insulting to those people if I had turned it down.”

Sir Alan emphasised that many victims were still waiting for financial redress from the Government years after they were impacted by the scandal.

He said: “Hopefully this will be another string to my bow in fighting for payouts for others – it’s not just me, so many others are waiting.”

Sir Alan described his years campaigning for justice and redress as an “uphill struggle”, adding: “We were up against a big corporation which had endless or bottomless pockets and they just kept on with ‘deny, deny, deny’ and we had no access to anything.”

The ITV drama had allowed victims to show their face in the community more, he said, giving them vindication after years spent protesting their innocence had been ignored.

Despite ongoing negotiations over compensation and redress, Sir Alan said a “big party” was being planned for next year for victims of the scandal.

He said: “Thoughts are already in mind for that and I think everyone’s up for it – all the original group, we’ll have one big do. Then perhaps we can move on and put it all behind us – but we’ll only be able to do that if everyone’s clear from it. That’s my big priority.”

Sir Alan said he had no preference when it came to which royal conducted the ceremony. “It still hasn’t really hit home yet,” he said, “I welcome the opportunity to discuss what has gone on with whoever ends up presenting the award.”