What brought justice to UK postal scam victims—fearless media, public support & a TV drama

What's common between the UK postal scandal and Bilkis Bano case is the prolonged struggle against a system determined to deny justice.

Post Office On Chapel Hill | Wikimedia commons

A legal fiasco in the UK provides an interesting juxtaposition of perspectives about society, attitudes, the judicial system, and the role of the media.

Over the last 20 years, the British Post Office has prosecuted hundreds of sub-postmasters for crimes they did not commit. Based on evidence from an IT system, which is now well known to have been flawed, 736 were convicted, and most jailed. After a dogged campaign by some of the sub-postmasters, this whole sequence of events is being called the largest miscarriage of justice in the UK. And yet, four years after that pronouncement, only 93 have had their convictions reversed.

What brought the British postal scandal to a climax was a four-hour drama on ITV—one of the leading television channels in the UK—on the inside story of the campaign. The drama told a well-known story, which had been widely covered in the newspapers, on TV, and extensively on BBC Radio 4. But the dramatisation was new—it brought the utter despair of the sub-postmasters to life.

Power of public support

The UK’s postal scandal has complicated contours. The Post Office Limited is an ancient institution. It used to be part of the Royal Mail, first established in 1516. But it was made a separate entity in 2012. It provides postal services through a small number of counters it operates directly, but mainly through a network of sub-postmasters – independent retailers who work under contract. The Post Office has also become a financial services provider, selling insurance, and travel money, as well as providing basic banking.

In the late 1990s, the Post Office implemented a new IT system, Horizon, which would provide the financial bookkeeping for the myriad services. However, soon after its implementation, sub-postmasters started to report serious discrepancies between their cash balances and the record of sales. In case after case, the Post Office claimed that the Horizon system was providing accurate accounts and that the sub-postmasters were pilfering money. The Hobson’s choice they were given: make up the shortfall or lose the Post Office contract. In most cases, people dug deep into their pockets, taking on debt or mortgaging their houses to pay up. And when they failed to pay, they were prosecuted. Even as the numbers piled up, no one paused to think how so many sub-postmasters—all vetted by the Post Office—had suddenly turned to a life of crime.

One sub-postmaster, Alan Bates, refused to pay and had his contract promptly terminated. Rather than go away quietly, he started a campaign to support the sub-postmasters. He was convinced that the Horizon system was wrong. Over time, the campaign attracted hundreds of sub-postmasters and got the support of members of parliament, the media, and eventually some litigation specialists.

Started in 2003, the campaign eventually resulted in the exoneration of the first group of sub-postmasters only in 2019. Others followed later. Most cases remain unresolved even today. Only a few have received compensation for the lives destroyed. In the case of four individuals driven by desperation, their lives ended tragically. Many others suffered broken family relationships and other damages.

Role of media

The ITV drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, telecast during the holiday season humanised the victims and set off a chain reaction. Promises of faster and fuller compensation are coming thick and fast. Moreover, the British government is now contemplating the extraordinary step of enacting a law through parliament to overrule convictions issued by the courts. It is somewhat similar to the intervention by the Supreme Court of India, which ordered the 11 men convicted of rape and murder in the Bilkis Bano rape case to be returned to complete the rest of their prison sentences.

What is common between these two cases is the prolonged struggle against a system determined to deny justice. And the determination of a small number of litigants, supported by people of influence and the media, to not accept injustice.

But the differences are also well-pronounced. The public support for the British sub-postmasters, albeit visible only after the ITV drama was aired, is palpable. Most of the media has loudly amplified the drama. And the way politicians of all parties in the UK are scrambling over each other to right the historical wrongs is also noticeable. No such support or action is seen in India even today when it comes to the Gujarat riots, not even in the well-documented case of Bilkis Bano. Sadly, many other victims like her have turned into statistics and some not even that.

If ever there was a commentary to be found on the need for an independent and upright media unafraid to ask probing questions on difficult issues, this week provides a contrast.

Shashi Verma is Chief Technology Officer at Transport for London. Views are personal.

(Edited by Ratan Priya)