HULL KR owner Neil Hudgell has spoken out on his representation of the victims of the Post Office scandal in their legal battle.
Turn on the news in recent days and that item has dominated proceedings, largely because of a new ITV four-part series named Mr Bates vs the Post Office, focusing on the accusation of theft, fraud and false accounting aimed at hundreds of subpostmasters and subpostmistresses in 1999.
That was down to the Post Office’s IT system – Horizon, which had been developed by Fujitsu – incorrectly reporting money discrepancies across branches in the UK.
Over 700 subpostmasters were therefore wrongly imprisoned and fined substantial amounts which led to a campaign headed by Alan Bates, a former subpostmaster himself, to clear his and the rest of the victims’ names.
The Post Office’s IT system, Horizon, was a new form of computer accounting software that simply failed and created shortfalls at postal branches across the UK.
It took until 2019 for the High Court to rule that the Horizon system was indeed faulty, proving those 700 subpostmasters to be innocent of the crimes they had been convicted of.
Mr Bates vs the Post Office has rightly gained incredible media attention, with former Post Office chief Paula Vennells handing back her CBE in the past week following the scandal.
Now Hudgell, the founder of Hudgell Solicitors, was a guest on BBC News on Thursday morning after being contacted by hundreds of victims seeking representation.
“The drama has elevated things to a whole new platform. The countries woke up to the hideous scandal that this is all about,” Hudgell said on BBC Breakfast.
“The two overwhelming feelings, I think, are revulsion at the behaviour of Post Office and an outpouring of absolute sympathy for these hideously scarred people.
“It’s obviously galvanized them, given them a renewed energy because they’ve been fighting this fight for two decades.
“But equally, it’s also brought out of the woodwork other seriously damaged people that have lived in the shadows for so long and have had to deal with mental health issues, trauma and all those sorts of things.
“We’ve been inundated with calls, well into three figures, and it’s a number that rises by the day. A disturbing feature in some senses is the fact that a number of these calls are coming from relatives, sons and daughters of postmasters who are no longer with us.
“They’re emotional calls, difficult calls because they’re not here to have their names cleared so those scars will remain indefinitely.
“So it’s a really difficult journey but it’s one that they feel compelled to take on behalf of their loved ones.”
Credit to Neil Hudgell for fighting a just cause.
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