This article contains spoilers for Mr Bates vs The Post Office episode 4.
The fourth and final episode of Mr Bates vs The Post Office shows how the Horizon scandal was dealt with in court.
Having received the tip from solicitor James Hartley, Alan has managed to gather together the required number of people to pursue group litigation and take the JFSA's case against the Post Office to court. And whilst they end up securing a victory in the end, it doesn't begin to help properly repay the debts that hundreds of subpostmasters up and down the country paid, and so Alan doggedly continues the fight on their behalf.
Here's a complete recap of everything that happened in Mr Bates vs The Post Office episode 4.
Preparing for court
Episode four begins with over 500 people gathering at Fenny Compton for another JFSA meeting, eight years on from the first one Alan organized. There, lawyer James Hartley explains the group litigation process, and how they're going to fund it.
Alan also explains that this route won't overturn convictions or discharge bankruptcies, but allows the former postal workers to put their stories forward in court. Alan takes a vote, and they decide to move forward. Later, Alan meets with James and another solicitor (Patrick Green). Elsewhere, Jo's mother tells her she's been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but she makes Jo promise to see her case through to the very end.
In London, after some sort of hearing, Alan tells Jo she won't be called as a witness in the proceedings; no one with a criminal conviction will be. In another meeting with the legal team, Patrick reveals they found the fact-finding email Paula Vennells sent. Alan learns that Paula Vennells won't appear in court, but Angela van den Bogerd will. However, James believes Patrick will still be able to bring up remote access as a point of contention, as Angela said subpostmasters were solely responsible for their accounts in her witness statement.
Alan says he knows a man who can prove the above statement is untrue: Richard Roll, the Fujitsu whistleblower who reached out to Alan directly. Alan and James meet with Richard; he says conclusively they could access subpostmasters' accounts remotely and could make changes to their accounts, but he doesn't have hard evidence from his time at the company, and he's not prepared to go to court.
November 7, 2018, arrived, and Alan was selected as the first subpostmaster to give his evidence in court; he denied that any bookkeeping errors could be down to him or his staff (which the Post Office's lawyer says is their position).
After other witnesses were called, Patrick prepared to question Angela; whilst in the witness box, she finally admitted that the Post Office could access the Horizon branch accounts remotely, via Fujitsu. She was also questioned if she was being put under pressure to protect the Post Office brand. On New Year's Eve, 2018, Alan and Suzanne are at home, and disgusted to see Paula Vennells has received a CBE for services to the Post Office as part of the New Year's Honours List.
Richard goes on the record
The Post Office maintains that remote access to subpostmasters' accounts still couldn't be done without their consent, so James and Alan meet with Richard to convince him to appear in court. And whilst the Post Office legal team suggest his recollection of his time at Fujitsu could be hazy all these years later, Richard concludes that that there was extensive amounts of work on subpostmasters' accounts during his time with the company.
Moving forward to the Common Issues Trial Judgment in March 2019, the managing judge finds in favor of the JFSA. However, the Post Office stalls proceedings by accusing him of being unfairly biased against Post Office Ltd. And whilst this is proof of desperation, it causes an issue for Alan and the team: they've run out of money. James and Patrick tell Alan that it's time to negotiate a settlement, which Alan sees as tantamount to giving up.
Later, we see James, Patrick, and Alan giving details of the settlement package to other members of the JFSA. Patrick tells them they won a staggering victory and a compensation package worth £58 million... but after the fees are paid, they'll be left with funds in the region of just £12 million to divide between them, angering the group significantly.
Alan tries to get them to see the bright side; they can use this judgement during their own appeals against criminal convictions. Plus, he says it will hopefully give other victims who were too scared to come forward until now the confidence to join the fight. Afterwards, Jo tells him that he won, and others approach Alan to thank him for his hard work.
Keeping up the fight
Back in Wales, Suzanne tells Alan he mustn't blame himself for not getting a bigger win for the JFSA. He says he doesn't blame himself... and later admits he's not giving up yet because he wants the right people (the British Government) to accept the blame and pay the JFSA members their money back.
In a meeting with James Arbuthnot MP and Bob Rutherford, he says the British Government needs to hold their hands up because they're the owners of the Post Office. Therefore, he believes they must accept responsibility for the fiasco now that the truth is established in a court of law.
James has him cast back to when Bob conducted his review and reveals a lawyer's report wherein the Post Office sought independent legal advice. The report proves that Post Office executives were shredding documents and failing to disclose anything about the unsafe convictions, and found beyond doubt that the Post Office lied to and was in contempt of Parliament. He asks is Paula Vennells knew about what was going on; it's not possible to say with any real certainty, and we hear Paula's statement on the entire case where she did not accept any personal accusations of misconduct.
We then jump forward to a hearing at the Court of Appeal on April 23, 2021, where more than 40 people (including Jo and Noel Thomas) are appealing their criminal convictions. The judge rules in favor of Jo, Noel, Susan Rudkin and many more people, and we get to see them celebrate the good news outside court.
Alan hadn't attended but got to see them celebrating at home. He promptly gets up off the sofa and heads to his computer to draw up a new invoice to cover the total legal costs (plus interest) for the Minister of Postal Affairs. The show ends with a series of statistics that hammer home just how widespread a miscarriage of justice this was and reveals Alan is still keeping up the fight for compensation today.
Mr Bates vs The Post Office is now streaming on ITVX. For more top shows to enjoy, check out our picks of the best ITV dramas we think you should be watching right now.
