The Post Office: How a TV series sparked public outrage over one of the biggest court scandals in UK history and forced the government to act

But nothing had the impact that the TV series had. Mr. Bates v. Post Office (“Mr. Bates v. Post Office”).

The reaction to the series on social media and in the media has been tremendous.

This issue has dominated discussions in the British Parliament in recent days. The government was forced to do so Commitment to pay millions of dollars in compensation and a promise to exonerate the innocent.

More than a million people signed a petition calling for former UK Post boss Paula Fennells to be stripped of her lofty position, and she ended up stepping down.

In addition, public outcry encouraged tough penalties for those guilty, and for the private company involved to be charged the costs of the disaster, so that British taxpayers would not have to bear the costs of the disaster.

But this is not the first time that the media has played a decisive role in this battle.

The scoop on the scandal was published in 2009 in the magazine Computer Weekly And The case has been followed and reported extensively by dedicated journalists over the years. In 2013, there were more than 300 articles on the topic, according to the magazine.

The BBC produced an award-winning radio documentary series in 2020, and its investigative program Panorama later covered the case.

In 2021, Nick Wallis, one of the journalists who conducted a lengthy investigation into the case, published the book The Great Post Office Scandal.

The coverage continued, an accompaniment and a voice for those affected, who were gradually adding some victories.

However, it was the broadcast of the series, produced by the British channel ITV, from 1 January 2024, that aroused significant public interest and increased pressure on the authorities.

None of the major events in the four episodes of the drama series are shown Mr. Bates v. Post Office It's new.

However, they put the details of the hideous scandal that had been known for years before the public's eyes.

The question is how and why now?

On the one hand, The series captured the imagination of viewers In a way a documentary might not have been able to do, says BBC political correspondent Harry Varley.

“Many of the victims of this scandal have been psychologically traumatized,” he says. “Their reputations were ruined and as a result, they did not want to talk to journalists on camera.”

It is through the actors that the true emotional drama is revealed For the first time, the general public was able to appreciate the scale of the scandal.

“A lot of people know what happened, thanks to the popularity of the ITV drama,” Farley says.

This means that the number of people exerting pressure on their representatives in Parliament has doubled, expressing their concern and anger at what happened.

And Politicians who will be on trial in this year's general election are suddenly interested in the case. There is an urgent need to demonstrate that they are taking action in this regard.

Post Office Ltd. (PO), the UK's postal carrier, is a huge company that benefits from a good name and reputation, thanks to its long history of service dating back to 1660.

It has approximately 12,000 offices across the country, many in rural areas and small towns where they are an integral part of communities, and their employees and their work are valued.

These branches are managed by franchise partners or independent business owners known as subpostmasters..

In addition to sending letters and parcels, they perform the functions of banks, provide all types of financial services, process the renewal of passports and driver's licenses, and pay social assistance and pensions.

But between 1999 and 2015, the PO destroyed the lives of hundreds of vice presidents and their families, creating a Kafkaesque nightmare of confusion, secrets and lies.

He relentlessly pursued branch managers with impeccable records Alleged theft, fraud and false accounting.

During those years, he exercised his institutional powers to question and prosecute them for discrepancies in their accounts.

Contradictions that began to appear only after arrival Installing a new computer system in all branches.

In 1999-2000, the Post Office implemented an IT system called Horizon is developed by the Japanese company Fujitsu.

Richard Rolle, a Fujitsu engineer between 2001 and 2004, told the BBC: “It was known that the software was very weak.”

“A few weeks after I started working there, I said to my boss, ‘I need to delete this and rewrite it from scratch.’”

His response: “It's not going to happen. Do you have any idea how long it will take and how much money it will cost to redo it?”

Roll confirmed that this was known There are errors in the system that affected the balancesso there are likely differences that users cannot explain.

This is exactly what began to happen to hundreds of subpostmasters.

Imagine you are the Deputy Postmaster General and one night you are closing money using the Horizon computer system.

You press the button to reconcile accounts and There is a discrepancy of hundreds, perhaps thousands of pounds.

The paper accounts you have say that everything is fine, but the system, inexplicably, calculates that there is a huge deficit.

You are horrified to learn that there is a clause in your contract with the purchase order that specifies this You are responsible for any lost fundsNo matter how it happens.

You contact technical support, but nothing resolves the discrepancy and they assure you that you are the only one who reported problems with the system.

You have two options: Pay the deficiency in cash immediately or face prosecution with the high possibility of ending up in prison.

In total, about 3,500 workers at post office branches were falsely accused of illegally withdrawing money from their accounts.

Hundreds of The men and women ended up being tried and convicted with penalties Ranging from providing hundreds of hours of community service to prison.

Many people's lives have been severely devastated Financial difficulties or complete bankruptcy After convictions.

Even those who avoided prosecution had to go into debt to cover the huge sums they allegedly owed.

The victims and their families were scarred and suffered from social rejection, psychological stress, and illness.

At least four suicides linked to the scandal were recorded.

In 2009, Alan Bates, who had been sacked years earlier after reporting problems with Horizon, formed the campaign group JSFA (Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance) to expose the scandal.

He managed to collect 555 victims and The Post Office was sued, although for years the company managed to evade the charges, thanks to its powerful lawyers..

Despite press reports about problems with Horizon's system, its managers continued to insist that the technology was “robust.”

After a long battle, in 2019 the JSFA group was able to win a lawsuit that ruled that the sentences against them were unfair and that the Horizon system was responsible.

Some rulings were overturned and other cases were reconsidered, paving the way for the wrongly accused to obtain compensation.

So far, about $30 million in compensation has been paid.

but The PO was criticized for delaying payments and dozens of victims died before being compensated..

Furthermore, the high legal costs that the plaintiffs had to cover resulted in a significant reduction in the amount they received.

In return, PO executives were given bonuses tied to the investigation into the scandal in 2021.

However, no responsible person from the post office or Feijutsu has been found.

After the uproar surrounding the TV series, politicians had no choice but to pay attention.

The British government proposed issuing a law that considers A general exoneration of all sub-managers involved in the scandal. But you'll have to figure out how to speed up the appeal process.

More than 900 people will have their convictions overturned, and more than 4,000 people may be eligible for compensation.

There are different compensation plans. In one of them, the government presented A one-time payment of US$95,000 to each of the victims.

But he thought so A large number of those affected will not accept this compensation Because it does not cover the economic and emotional damage they have suffered.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said those who were “most affected” would be able to “seek a higher offer”.

This would be equivalent to about $762,000 USD, but it would not be available automatically.

Meanwhile, the parliamentary inquiry continues with the aim of identifying the perpetrators, finding faults in the entire process and drawing lessons.