The Post Office victims whose lives were torn apart by faulty Horizon IT system

The story of former sub-postmaster Alan Bates has been thrust into the spotlight in 2024 after an ITV series exploring the Horizon scandal captured the nation.

Mr Bates vs The Post Office detailed his fight for justice for innocent fellow sub-postmasters and mistresses convicted of fraud, theft and false accounting due to the faulty Fujitsu IT system.

The 69-year-old is one of hundreds of Post Office managers who were falsely accused of financial wrongdoing, after Horizon indicated shortfalls in their accounts.

Alan Bates

Alan Bates and his partner, Suzanne Sercombe, invested in a Post Office shop in Llandudno, north Wales, in 1998, a year before the introduction of the Horizon IT system.

When £6,000 went missing from the accounts in 2000, he became concerned. The Post Office told Mr Bates it was his responsibility for make up for any shortfalls, but he refused to do.

The company terminated his contract in 2003, claiming that £1,200 was still unaccounted for. The couple kept the shop, but the termination meant they lost an investment of £60,000.

Adamant that his bookkeeping was accurate, Mr Bates wrote to Computer Weekly, a magazine for IT professionals, about his concerns in 2004.

Computer Weekly went on to publish the first investigation into Horizon five years later.

In 2009, he founded the Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance (JFSA) group, as former colleagues continued to be prosecuted and sent to prison.

“When it all began, I didn’t intend to take a leading role, but it naturally happened over time and when things needed to be done, I just got on with them,” he said.

He led a justice campaign which culminated in 2019 with a High Court ruling that Horizon was faulty. The Post Office agreed to settle with 555 claimants, paying £57.75 million in damages.

Now retired, Mr Bates continues to campaign for the hundreds of people affected by the Post Office scandal.

Lee Castleton

Lee Castleton and his wife Lisa bought a Post Office branch in Bridlington, East Yorkshire, in 2003.

Within months, unexplained shortfalls appeared in his accounts.

He suspected the Horizon computer system was to blame, calling the helpline 91 times to express his concerns.

By March 2004, the losses had reached £25,000. After an audit, he was suspended and ordered to repay the missing money, which he refused to do.

Unable to afford a lawyer, he represented himself at the High Court in 2007, where the Post Office won the case and pursued him for costs of £321,000, leaving him bankrupt.

“We were ostracised in Bridlington,” Mr Castleton, played by Will Mellor in Mr Bates vs The Post Office, told Times Radio.

“We were abused in the streets. Our daughter was bullied. She was on the school bus and spat on by a young boy because [they thought] her father was a thief, and he’d take money from old people.”

He is one of more than 550 former postmasters who will receive part of a £58m settlement from the Post Office following the landmark High Court case in 2019.

Jo Hamilton

In 2001, Jo Hamilton began working at a branch in South Warnborough village, Hampshire, where she was appointed subpostmistress two years later.

When the Horizon system began showing shortfalls on her account, Ms Hamilton believed she had made a mistake and covered the losses herself.

Facing further discrepancies, she remortgaged her house twice and borrowed to find funds, ending up in debt.

In 2006, she was fired after another £10,000 went missing.

She was eventually charged with stealing more than £36,000, appearing in court in 2008, where pleaded guilty of a lesser charge of false accounting to avoid prison.

More than 70 people from her village turned up to support her in court, convinced of her innocence.

She told The Times: “[The judge] said to me: ‘Mrs Hamilton, what have you done? These people love you. Why are you in my court pleading guilty to a very serious criminal offence?’

“I just looked at him with tears streaming down my face. I was absolutely terrified. I really did think I was going to prison.”

Her conviction was quashed in 2021 after she was found to be a victim of faulty Horizon system.

She became involved in the development of Mr Bates vs The Post Office three years ago, recounting her story to the programme’s writer Gwyneth Hughes and Bafta-winning actress Monica Donlan, who plays her.

On Tuesday, Ms Hamilton appeared before the Commons’ Business and Trade Committee alongside fellow campaigner Alan Bates.

She said she was fighting for a group that have still had “virtually nothing”, describing a “factory of bureaucracy that just swallows up paperwork”.

Seema Misra

Seema Misra became a Post Office manager in West Byfleet, Surrey, in 2005.

As shortfalls emerged, she desperately sought to balance the books through various means, borrowing money and transferring takings.

Despite her efforts, an audit found an accounting discrepancy of £74,000 in 2008. Soon after, she was suspended and charged with theft and false accounting.

She was sentenced to 15 months in prison and sent to Bronzefield prison in 2010 while eight weeks pregnant, on her son’s 10th birthday.

Ms Misra gave birth to her second child in hospital wearing an electronic tag after she was released early for good behaviour.

“If I hadn’t had been pregnant, I definitely would have killed myself,” she told the BBC. “It was the worst thing. It was so shameful.”

In 2021, her conviction was finally overturned by the Court of Appeal along with 38 other subpostmasters, but she is yet to receive compensation.

“Each and every happy moment of my life since 2005, the Post Office ruined,” she told the BBC.

Martin Griffiths

Martin Griffiths and his wife Gina bought a Post Office branch in Great Sutton in 1995.

Unexplained shortfalls began appearing in 2009, 10 years after the introduction of Horizon, growing to £57,000 by 2013.

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That same year, two armed robbers attacked his branch, breaking his wrist with a crowbar and stealing £54,000 from the safe.

The couple drew upon their life savings to balance the books, paying the Post Office more than £100,000 in total.

Two months after the robbery, the Post Office sacked Mr Griffiths for failing to manage his accounts or the branch’s security properly. The news sent him into a spiral of depression.

Four months later, he took his own life, throwing himself in front of a bus aged 58, after leaving a note apologising to his family and telling them he loved them.

“They hounded him. They persecuted him. Didn’t seem to be any end to it at the time,” Gina told the BBC.

“He’s a proud man and I think he thought he was letting us all down; his children, his parents, me. To turn the machine off in the morning, and the worst, the worst thing for me was seeing my children.

“They had to see their dad die and it was purely down to the Post Office. Nobody else. So I blame them.”