It has been revealed that 50 new potential victims of the Horizon IT scandal have come forward since the airing of new ITV drama series Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

The new four-part series Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, starring actor Toby Jones (Hunger Games and Captain America: The First Avenger), recently aired on ITV detailing what has been labelled "one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history" - the Horizon IT scandal.

The scandal saw more than 700 Post Office branch managers, between 2000 and 2014, handed criminal convictions after faulty Fujitsu accounting software made it appear as though money was missing from their outlets.

A public inquiry into the post office scandal is still ongoing.

St Helens Star: More than 700 Post Office branch managers were handed criminal convictions as a result of the Horizon IT scandal.More than 700 Post Office branch managers were handed criminal convictions as a result of the Horizon IT scandal. (Image: Kirsty O’Connor/PA)

50 new potential post office scandal victims come forward following ITV series

It has been revealed that since ITV aired Mr Bates Vs The Post Office (the first episode aired on Monday, January 1), 50 new potential Horizon IT scandal victims have approached lawyers.

Neil Hudgell, a lawyer acting for claimants, told the BBC the new enquiries included former sub-postmasters who were given convictions.

He said: “The majority of (those 50 new enquiries) were not prosecuted but lost their livelihoods, lost their homes.

St Helens Star: It is said that around 50 new potential victims from the Post Office scandal have come forward since ITV's Mr Bates vs The Post Office went to air.It is said that around 50 new potential victims from the Post Office scandal have come forward since ITV's Mr Bates vs The Post Office went to air. (Image: PA)

“But there’s a small handful of people who were convicted that have come forward, three in total at the moment, which is obviously a tiny number proportionate to those that are still out there.

“And I think the common feature of these is totally unsurprising.

"It’s people that have been so heavily damaged by [the] Post Office psychologically that they have been so fearful of coming forward and going through the process again.”

Metropolitan Police looking into “potential fraud offences” from Horizon IT scandal

Metropolitan Police has now revealed detectives are looking at “potential fraud offences” committed during the Horizon IT scandal.

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Scotland Yard said on Friday (January 5) that officers are “investigating potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions”, for example “monies recovered from sub-postmasters as a result of prosecutions or civil actions”.

The Met has already been looking into potential offences of perjury and perverting the course of justice in relation to investigations and prosecutions carried out by the Post Office.

Two people have been interviewed under caution but nobody has been arrested since the investigation was launched in January 2020.