The real-life folks behind Mr Bates vs the Post Office

Mr Bates vs The Post Office is a present which can really feel all too actual for a lot of.

The new ITV sequence tells the story of the mass miscarriage of justice that engulfed a whole bunch of harmless Post Office workers because of a defective IT system and subsequent cowl up. 

Between 1999 and 2015, the Post Office prosecuted greater than 700 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses primarily based on incorrect data from the Horizon system.  

Former postmaster Alan Bates led and received a authorized battle after himself falling sufferer to the faults. His victory paved the way in which for dozens of convictions to be overturned.

He is portrayed on display by Toby Jones, while his supportive spouse Susanne Sercombe is depicted by Julie Hesmondhalgh.

The present depicts a number of different harmless former Post Office workers who had been wrongly convicted, together with Jo Hamilton (Monica Dolan) and Lee and Lisa Castleton (Will Mellor and Amy Nuttall).

Also portrayed is much-criticised former Post Office CEO Paul Vennells, who stepped down from her function in February 2019 and has confronted calls to provide again her CBE. 

Below, MailOn-line delves into the lives of every of the important thing gamers depicted in Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

Alan Bates 

Mr Bates, now 69, and Ms Sercombe used their life financial savings to purchase a Post Office Branch in Llandudno, North Wales, in 1998.

The businessman, who was a meticulous report keeper, began seeing unexplained losses within the department’s accounts by the tip of 2000.

He had his contract as a subpostmaster terminated by the Post Office in 2003 after he refused to simply accept legal responsibility for £1,200 value of recorded losses.

He contended the cash by no means existed and was because of a software program glitch.

Mr Bates and his accomplice saved the store, however the termination of the Post Office contract meant they misplaced an funding of round £60,000.

In 2009, he arrange the Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance (JSFA), because the Post Office was within the strategy of pursuing the prosecutions of 736 former postmasters and postmistresses. 

In 2019 a decide dominated that the Horizon IT system had ‘bug, errors and defects’ and the Post Office agreed to settle with all 555 claimants who joined within the authorized motion.

Mr Bates revealed in December final yr that he had turned down the OBE for his campaigning in disgust at Mrs Vennells retaining her honour.

The 69-year-old instructed the Mirror: ‘The very first thing that sprang to my thoughts whereas studying the letter was Paula Vennells nonetheless had a CBE.

‘I felt so deeply insulted. She presided over a coverage of harassing a whole bunch of harmless folks. It’s not simply that the Government hasn’t requested her to return it.

‘What’s even worse is that regardless of figuring out the energy of feeling about it, how folks have suffered and a few instances died on her watch – she does not really feel inclined to provide it again.’

Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Tuesday, Mr Bates praised the brand new drama, saying: ‘I feel the actors have finished an exquisite job in it they usually’ve actually portrayed plenty of the struggling that individuals have gone by means of so properly.’  

Suzanne Sercombe 

Broadchurch star Hesmondhalgh portrays Ms Sercombe, who supported her husband all through his authorized combat. 

Speaking of her portrayal of Ms Sercombe, Hesmondhalgh instructed the Lancashire Telegraph: ‘Suzanne has, in tons and many methods, put her personal life on maintain and sacrificed large quantities to this trigger. 

‘She’s no walkover, not a bit of wifey at dwelling by any stretch of the creativeness. 

‘I get the impression that generally it has been onerous as a result of she’s fairly a robust persona.’ 

Paula Vennells 

Mrs Vennells was in control of the Post Office from 2012 till 2019, when the agency was nonetheless finishing up prosecutions of greater than 700 subpostmasters.

The former CEO, who’s an ordained priest and married mom of two, left the Post Office with a CBE for providers to the organisation in addition to to charity – and a £389,000 bonus. 

She had secured work as an adviser to the Cabinet Office and as chairman of the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London.

Mrs Vennells has repeatedly apologised over the scandal, first in 2019 upon the conclusion of the group motion in opposition to the Post Office.

And final summer time she mentioned: ‘I stay really sorry for the struggling brought about to wrongly prosecuted subpostmasters and their households.’

This week, Postal Services Minister Kevin Hollinrake mentioned she ought to give again her CBE. 

He instructed ITV’s Good Morning Britain that as chief government she ‘finally [had] accountability for what occurred’.

‘If I used to be Paula Vennells, I might critically contemplate handing that CBE again voluntarily’, he added. 

She is portrayed in Mr Bates vs the Post Office by Lia Williams, who starred as Wallis Simpson in Netflix sequence The Crown. 

Mrs Vennells had served as a minister at a church in St Albans however stepped again from her duties in 2021.  

Angela van den Bogerd

Ms van den Bogerd labored her method up from behind the counter at a Post Office department to change into a director on the agency.

She labored carefully with Mrs Vennells and stepped down from her function in 2020.

She is portrayed within the new ITV drama by former Coronation Street star Katherine Kelly.

Ms van den Bogerd defended the Post Office when the accuracy of the Horizon system got here into query.

Former subpostmaster Parmod Kalia had requested the Post Office for an apology after he was wrongly convicted.

Ms van den Bogard replied to him, saying that the Post Office had ‘exhaustively investigated’ Horizon and had not recognized ‘any transaction brought on by a technical fault with Horizon which resulted in a postmaster wrongly being held answerable for a lack of cash’.

She added that there was no proof of transactions recorded by branches ‘being altered by means of “remote access” to the system. 

‘Horizon doesn’t have performance that enables the Post Office or Fujitsu [the manufacturer of the system] to edit or delete the transactions recorded by branches.’

Just over a yr later, the Post Office admitted in court docket that distant entry was attainable. 

According to the BBC, it was claimed throughout her time on the Post Office that she ‘bullied’ workers into signing confessions that they’d dedicated fraud.

In December 2020 it was dominated that she had ‘obfuscated’ and ‘misled’ the court docket along with her testimony. 

The Rt Hon Justice Fraser mentioned: ‘There had been two particular issues the place [Angela van den Bogerd] didn’t give me frank proof, and sought to obfuscate issues and mislead me.’

In 2020, she was appointed because the Head of People on the Football Association of Wales. She left the function in 2021. 

Jo Hamilton 

Jo Hamilton, a mother-of-two, ran a submit workplace in South Warnborough, Hampshire, along with her panorama gardener husband David.

She was pressured to plead responsible to a £36,000 shortfall after Post Office bullying left her ‘terrified’ of going to jail.

More than 70 villagers supported her at court docket, and the native vicar vouched for her good character.

The decide put her on probation for a yr, the place she was pressured to attend rehabilitation conferences with hardened criminals.

Her prison report meant she might discover work solely as a cleaner for money, and she or he was barred from attending her grandchildren’s college.

She is portrayed within the ITV drama by Monica Dolan. 

Ms Hamilton mentioned in 2021: ‘They instructed me I used to be the one one. But after my case went to court docket others got here ahead to say it had occurred to them too.’ 

She was left livid in 2022 on the paltry supply of compensation supplied by the Post Office.

She mentioned: They’re simply giving me my a refund, there’s nothing for what they did to me. 

‘I’m not going to simply accept it. I’ll return to court docket if I have to. I’m simply livid about it.’

Lee and Lisa Castleton

Husband and spouse Lee and Lee Castleton purchased a Post Office department in Bridlington, East Yorkshire, 2003.

Both thought that the enterprise would offer for his or her household and set them up for the remainder of their lives. 

However, inside a number of months, the Castletons confronted accusations of fraud that ultimately price them their livelihood, dwelling, fame and well being.

It could be years earlier than they found that they had been simply two of a whole bunch of individuals in related positions.

The Post Office’s auditor, Helen Rose, mentioned they owed £25,000. When Mr Castleton refused to pay the cash again, he was dismissed and brought to court docket by the Post Office.

A case on the High Court discovered in opposition to them and the Post Office then pursued them for £321,000 in authorized prices.

The Castletons then took half in Mr Bates’ authorized motion in opposition to the Post Office. 

After their chapter and different money owed had been taken into consideration, they acquired simply £30,000.

The couple are portrayed within the new ITV drama by Will Mellor and Amy Nuttall. 

Mr Castleton now works evening shifts in a manufacturing unit to make ends meet, while his spouse has a job in a small grocery store owned by her household.

The couple had been as soon as mortgage-free aged 35 however now have a brand new mortgage that they won’t repay till they’re 70. 

In the depths of their despair, they feared that their two youngsters, now 28 and 26, could be taken away from them. 

Mr Castleton instructed the Mail this week: ‘We have not acquired to the tip of this; I’m nonetheless combating, we’re nonetheless victims.

‘But I look ahead to the day when it’s not the very last thing I take into consideration at evening and the very first thing I take into consideration after I get up.’ 

Noel Thomas 

Noel Thomas, now 76, was jailed for 9 months in 2006 after he was accused of stealing £48,000 whereas he was working for the Post Office in Gaerwen on Anglesey. 

In the hope of avoiding imprisonment, he had pled responsible to false accounting over the cash ‘lacking’ from his tiny submit workplace.

However, he ended up turning 60 whereas in jail. 

Speaking to the BBC after he had his conviction quashed in 2021, he mentioned: ‘I need everybody to have their identify cleared and to resolve what has occurred and the place the cash has gone to.

‘Thirteen years after jail, I need to admit it was onerous however I regularly acquired my confidence again by means of household, associates and work colleagues.

‘Yes, I do really feel bitter, and never only for myself – the Post Office have been coming and telling people who they’ve taken cash, that they’re a thief.’

He is portrayed by Ifan Huw Dafydd within the new ITV drama. 

In December 2022, Mr Thomas was honoured by his native council, who gave him ‘a protracted delayed vote of thanks for his service’.

He had served as a councillor for many years earlier than being disqualified from the function when he went to jail.  

Michael Rudkin

Michael Rudkin, who’s portrayed within the drama by Shaun Dooley, was a subpostmaster who was pursued to the brink of wreck by the Post Office.

He believes that motion was taken in opposition to him after he allegedly found that knowledge in branches may very well be altered remotely.

The day after Mr Rudkin expressed concern on the revelation, a Post Office auditor turned up at his store in Ibstock, Leicestershire, to inform him £44,000 was unaccounted for. 

‘My world was turned the other way up,’ he mentioned in 2015, including: ‘I turned like a drowning man with no life raft.’

Despite insisting he by no means noticed a penny of the ‘lacking’ funds, Mr Rudkin was pressured to repay the cash and his spouse Susan, who did a lot of the day-to-day working of the department, was prosecuted and given a suspended jail sentence.

Mr Rudkin, now 66, had his contract terminated whereas his spouse was left ‘considering suicide’ after her conviction.

In September final yr, Mr Rudkin mentioned the £600,000 he and his spouse had been supplied in compensation was ‘obscene’.

‘When you keep in mind that now we have been out of the enterprise for 15 years – that’s 5,475 days,’ he instructed the BBC. 

To make ends meet after they misplaced their positions on the Post Office, the couple turned their dwelling right into a Bed and Breakfast.  

Pamela Stubbs

Pamela Stubbs was suspended and stripped of her submit workplace after glitches within the new Horizon IT system claimed she had ‘misplaced’ £27,000. 

She was by no means instructed bosses privately suspected losses at Barkham Post Office in Berkshire had been ‘associated’ to issues with the pc software program.

When Mrs Stubbs refused to pay the cash, she was kicked out of the enterprise she had run for 23 years – together with ten by herself after her husband died. 

The pensioner, from Wokingham, was despatched a invoice each month for her ‘debt’, and the Post Office even mentioned it could take a reduce of her earnings from any future jobs.

A prison investigator got here spherical to interview her, however regardless of being unable to show she had taken the cash, the enterprise was by no means returned to her.

She is portrayed within the new drama by Lesley Nicol.