This is the moment Post Office hero Alan Bates and his wife fought back tears after learning they’ve been gifted a free holiday by Richard Branson.
Mr Bates today appeared on ITV’s This Morning with his partner Suzanne Sercombe to discuss how he led a campaign to expose the Horizon scandal, in which hundreds of Post Office staff were wrongfully accused of theft and fraud.
At the end of the interview, hosts Craig Doyle and Josie Gibson told the 68-year-old that the Virgin Group founder has gifted him and Susanna a free trip to Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands.
The former subpostmaster began tearing up as he was then told he had also been gifted a seven night Mediterrenean cruise from Barcelona, leaving the couple speechless.
It comes as ITV’s new drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office has drawn a renewed interest in the scandal after airing last week, prompting Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to reconsider ways to finally compensate all wrongly accused postmasters.
This is the moment Post Office hero Alan Bates and his wife fought back tears after learning they’ve been gifted a free holiday by Richard Branson
At the end of the interview, hosts Craig Doyle and Josie Gibson told the 68-year-old that the Virgin Group founder has gifted him and Susanna a free trip to Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands
It comes as ITV’s new drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office has drawn a renewed interest in the scandal after airing last week, with Mr Bates Mr Bates being played by Toby Jones (pictured in the role)
Mr Bates said in an interview with the Sunday Times after the show aired and jokingly asked Mr Branson for a holiday. He said: ‘If Richard Branson is reading this, I’d love a holiday.’
Well, his wish has now come true as the billionaire told him that he had gifted him a ‘well-earned holiday’.
Branson wrote to Mr Bates saying: Dear Alan, I did get a chance to read your moving interview in The Times and we’d love to offer you and Suzanne a well earned holiday on Necker Island. I can’t of anyone who deserves a break more.
‘Hopefully see you there. Best, Richard.’
More than 700 Post Office staff were falsely prosecuted based on erroneous data from the firm’s Horizon computer system, which was developed by Fujitsu.
Some of these people were sent to prison after being convicted of false accounting and theft, some had their finances left in tatters and some will never see justice as they have since died.
It is considered to be the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history.
He helped to lead the campaign which revealed the Horizon IT scandal and brought the legal action against the Post Office in his name.
He and his partner Suzanne Sercombe used their life savings to buy the branch in 1998.
Mr Bates, who was a meticulous record keeper, started seeing unexplained losses in the accounts by the end of 2000, when a shortage of £6,000 appeared, WalesOnline reports.
Mr Bates had his contract as a subpostmaster terminated by the Post Office in 2003 after he refused to accept liability for £1,200 of losses in his branch in Llandudno, Wales. But he contended the money never existed and was due to a software glitch.
He and his partner kept the shop, but the termination of the Post Office contract meant they lost an investment of around £60,000.
Mr Bates appeared on ITV ‘s This Morning with his partner Suzanne Sercombe to discuss how he led a campaign to expose the Horizon scandal
Mr Bates initially thought he was the only subpostmaster or postmistress falsely accused of by the Post Office, who pursued them through the courts resulting in 736 being prosecuted over the non-existent missing money – with 86 being overturned last September.
And in 2009, he set up the Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance (JSFA).
Mr Bates, along with a group of wronged subpostmasters hired solicitors to take on their case and in 2018, he as one of the six lead claimants, took the Post Office to the High Court in a Group Litigation Order (GLO).
In 2019 a judge ruled that the Horizon IT system had ‘bug, errors and defects’ and the Post Office agreed to settle with all 55 claimants who joined in the legal action.
After his relentless campaigning, he was offered an OBE in January last year for services to justice, but he declined it as the job was not done yet.
He told the Honours Committee: ‘I do appreciate that there may well be people who believe that after the many years of my unpaid campaigning, which I led in order to expose the truth, I deserve some recognition for my work.
‘But I hope you can understand why it would be so inappropriate for me to accept any award at present, while so many of the victims continue to suffer so badly and [Paula] Vennells still retains an honour and remains a ‘role model’ to the Honours Committee.’
Mr Bates won a special recognition award at the 2023 Pride of Britain Awards.