Alan Bates (born c. 1954)^[1] is a former subpostmaster in Britain. He was appointed subpostmaster at Craig-y-Don, Llandudno in March 1998. His contract was terminated in 2003 and he went on to campaign on behalf of hundreds of other subpostmasters who lost their jobs in what became known as the British Post Office scandal.

Testifying at the public inquiry into the scandal in 2024, Bates described the termination of his own contract in 2003 and the events that led to his campaign on behalf of subpostmasters. His experience began just three months after the Horizon accounting and point-of-sale system was installed in his branch, when a £6,000 shortfall emerged. He said he complained repeatedly to Post Office management that the Horizon accounting system was unreliable, that its reporting facilities did not allow tracing of events behind shortfalls, and that it was wrong that operators were obliged to make good on shortfalls caused by the software.^[2] Over a two-year period he and his staff made 507 calls to the Post Office helpline, 85 of which related to Horizon.^[3] His contract was terminated with no reason given in November 2003. Although he was not prosecuted, he lost £65,000 which he had invested in the business.^[4]

Lawyers at the inquiry showed Bates internal documents they had uncovered in which his termination was said to be due to him being "unmanageable". He was referred to in the Post Office documents as someone who "struggled with accounting". In response, he said: "It's just they decided they were going to make a lesson of me." He said his determination to uncover the faults in Horizon was due to "stubbornness" and a sense of injustice after learning that hundreds of other subpostmasters had lost their jobs and been prosecuted.^[2]

Bates says he and his wife Suzanne were luckier than many of the other subpostmasters. He said:^[4]

Even though the post office was taken away, we still had the retail side of our business, which we ran for a few years… We were fortunate enough to come out with enough to buy outright a small property for ourselves… We both had basic jobs and also I went back to college to [study] more on computer sciences and stuff of that sort, which was very useful going forward. It did help once we started to get into court and on the technical aspects of all of this.

After his contract was terminated, he set up a website to highlight his concerns, contacted journalists and rallied together other subpostmasters to form the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA) group.^[4] He has campaigned for more than 20 years to get to the truth about the faults in the Horizon software, and the cover up by Post Office management who knew the system was flawed but continued to prosecute hundreds of subpostmasters; and to ensure that the affected subpostmasters are properly compensated.^[5][6]

In his own evidence to the Inquiry, Lord Arbuthnot, who as an MP had also campaigned on behalf of subpostmasters, said "The person who achieved the breakthrough moments was Alan Bates. He's a phenomenal man."^[7]

Born in Liverpool, Bates studied graphic design in Wrexham, and has lived in Newcastle, Cardiff and Exeter, working in project management.^[8] He said in early 2024 that he had declined an appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his campaigning, because Paula Vennells, a former Post Office Limited CEO, was still a Commander of the order (CBE).^{[lower-alpha 1][10]} Bates's campaign was dramatised in the 2024 television series Mr Bates vs The Post Office, in which he was played by Toby Jones.^[11]

In 2024 Bates turned down a compensation offer from the government, referring to the offer as 'derisory'.^[12]