Former Deputy Postmaster General Alan Bates said the post office was run by “thugs in suits” who were willing to do “anything” to cover up Horizon’s failures.

Giving evidence to the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry today, the chief campaigner for the Justice for Deputy Postmasters Alliance (JFSA) made a series of serious accusations against the state-owned company, including that it spent more than two decades trying to get He remained silent and terminated his duties. Because he dared to defy them, he signed a contract as deputy postmaster.

Mr Bates said the Post Office seemed willing to “do whatever it took to cover up Horizon’s failure”, no matter who had to be “trampled” in the process.

He also accused the government of allowing “once great institutions” to be stripped away by “thugs in suits” who act with “impunity regardless of the human misery and suffering they cause”.

He added: “Before and after my dismissal from the division, I spent 23 years dedicated to uncovering the truth and justice, not only for myself but for the entire group of deputy postmasters who were wrongly treated/wrongfully convicted.

“I have dedicated this period of my life to this cause, which sadly has been necessary because Post Office Limited has denied, lied, defended and attempted to discredit and silence me and the SPM community throughout this period .” [subpostmasters] Represented by Justice for Deputy Superintendents (JFSA). “

Mr Bates played a key role in uncovering the Horizon IT scandal, which saw more than 900 deputy postmasters wrongly convicted over IT system failures between 1999 and 2015.

A former deputy postmaster, Mr Bates was terminated from his contract by the Post Office in 2003 after refusing to take responsibility for account shortfalls at the Llandudno branch in North Wales.

Since then, Mr Bates has been campaigning vigorously to seek justice for himself and his colleagues, many of whom had their lives, businesses and livelihoods damaged by false accusations and convictions of fraud, false accounting and theft.

Mr Bates became a key figure in the ITV drama Mr Bates v The Post Office, which thrust the Horizon scandal into public view.

Since the TV show aired, the government has announced mass acquittals of postmasters convicted in the scandal.

Mr Bates told the inquest his own experiences of trying to draw attention to errors he encountered in IT systems, including one day in December 2000 when he contacted the post office’s helpline seven times, with one call lasting about an hour. Hour.

The inquest was shown slides from an undated presentation titled “Horizon Integrity”, written by Dave Smith, the post office’s former general manager of branch accounts, which showed Mr Bates was ultimately sacked, Because he became “unmanageable.”

On one of the slides, Mr Smith said of Mr Bates’ sacking: “Bates had his inconsistencies but was sacked because he became unmanageable. Apparently having difficulties with accounting, despite a lot of support , but failed to follow instructions.”

Asked what he understood to be the reason for the termination, Mr Bates said: “Basically I think it was because a) they didn’t like me going up against them in the first place; b) they felt embarrassed; c) I Thinking they couldn’t answer those questions, and they had a feeling I would move forward in a similar way.”

In 2010, former postal minister Sir Ed Davey refused to meet the former postmaster general, who also harshly criticized him, calling the current Lib Dem leader’s comments “disappointing and distasteful”.

Sir Ed refused to meet Mr Bates to discuss the deputy postmaster general’s plight, citing the government’s “arm’s length relationship” with the Post Office, prompting the campaigner to respond with another letter, which read: “This It’s not that you, after all, you can’t get involved or look into the matter, you do own 100% of the shares, and shareholders often worry about the ethics of the businesses they own.

“It is because you have adopted an arm’s length relationship that you have allowed a once great institution to be stripped of its assets by a gang of thugs in suits, and you have allowed them to continue to exist with impunity regardless of what they have suffered. Human misery and misery. Caused.”

A Lib Dem spokesman said Sir Ed had “been lied to” and was “sorry that he did not see through the Post Office’s lies and it took him five months to meet Mr Bates”.

Alan Bates said he had never returned to work since being sacked as deputy postmaster as a result of the Justice Movement, adding: “I didn’t plan to spend 20 years doing this thing.”

He added: “The key issue is always to reveal the truth from the outset because everything else will follow – once you know the truth of the matter, the rest will hopefully follow.

Speaking about his campaign for justice for the deputy postmaster, Mr Bates said: “When you meet people and realize it’s not just you and see the harm and justice they’ve suffered, you feel it’s you Things that have to be dealt with and. It’s something you can’t let go of.”