Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The real trauma of the Horizon Post Office scandal in Yorkshire

But as a gripping ITV drama showed this week, instead, after a two-year legal fight he was bankrupted, pursued for £321,000 costs by the Post Office, who it seems wanted to punish him for his temerity in standing up to their might.

Lee, 55, who was played by Will Mellor in Mr Bates versus the Post Office - younger, thinner maybe, but every bit as passionate - still believes that truth will triumph. It is just taking an unbelievably long time - two decades now - and the battle for compensation is creating yet more trauma.

The former aircraft electrical engineer turned trainee stockbroker bought a Post Office in Bridlington in July 2003 with wife Lisa. But within three weeks he was "ripping his hair out" over problems stemming from the now infamous Horizon system, since shown to have been riddled with faults.

He called the helpline 91 times pleading for help, but to no avail. By March 2004 the unexplained losses had hit £25,000. He was suspended after requesting an audit the same month and ordered to repay the money.

After the Post Office's legal team failed to show up at Scarborough County Court for the initial case, judgement was given in his favour. The Post Office appealed and the case ended up in the High Court in London where Lee had to represent himself: "I had to defend myself and it all went terribly wrong. I lost everything."

He, his wife and two daughters suffered, and still suffer, the consequences. One of them, now a teacher, developed an eating disorder.

Lee, who now works nightshifts in a factory in Scarborough, said: "I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, my family, particularly my children suffered terribly. My daughter was spat at, I've been physically assaulted for stealing money from old people, apparently. We were ostracised. It's a small fishing town, I felt we were targeted, we had a terrible time."

Mr Bates versus the Post Office showed the first meeting at Fenny Compton in Warwickshire attended by a group of subpostmasters, who'd all been prosecuted including Lee, marking the start of their campaign for justice, having always been told previously their cases "were the only ones".

In fact between 2000 and 2014, an average of one subpostmaster or subpostmistress a week was prosecuted, for theft, false accounting and other offences. From a total of 736, some were jailed, many were bankrupted, all suffering appalling stress and public shame. So far 92 have had their convictions quashed. Shocking scenes shown in the ITV drama included a tormented subpostmistress needing electric convulsive therapy for severe depression after stabbing herself.

One former postmaster, Martin Griffiths, killed himself after he was falsely suspected of stealing £60,000.

Lee said: "I am just so grateful (for the ITV series). For so many years people never listened, we were just another group of people with an axe to grind. Finally people are listening to the sheer trauma that happened in people's lives.

"The Post Office say they are apologising and making good and giving full and fair compensation, but it's just more of the same. People are being put through more and more terrible trauma trying to justify their actions against what they are going to get in the future.

"Someone may have pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and it's now being turned against them to reduce compensation. Instead of being fair and straightforward they are still punishing people. There are people who have not had an interim payment and they are still trying to survive.

"Would you be happy if someone who stole your car decided how much compensation you got? The very perpetrator of the thing deciding who is worthy of compensation and how they pay that? This is State sponsored: the Post Office is still spending millions in legal costs to try and drive everybody down."

Along with eight other original claimants the Castletons received a settlement, but they had to pay for the annulment of the bankruptcy, reducing the amount to just £30,000. They are still awaiting the "full and fair" compensation.

It "beggars belief" he says that no one has been held accountable in government or the Post Office. "No one has been moved aside, no one has lost their job, people have retired with their gold-plated pensions." More than 600 subpostmasters and mistresses still haven't come forward.

But for Lee it's no surprise that victims are not prepared to go back to the "same person who possibly perjured themselves taking the case to court in the first place".

The huge question is whether those involved in the cases will themselves now face court. So far so good, says Lee, with barrister Jason Beer and his team doing a "phenomenal" job at the ongoing public inquiry "opening cans of worms that we always believed were there" with emails and other documents they have unearthed providing hard evidence against claims of not knowing, not remembering.

He said: "It's a tangled web; I think there will be a lot of finger pointing and ducking and diving. But bring it on. I am really looking forward to seeing where we are in a year's time - it has been a long time coming."

Meanwhile Alison Hall is convinced that she will have her day in court. But this time instead of being in the dock she hopes to be in the front seat of the public gallery.

Alison, who ran Hightown Post Office in Liversidge, West Yorkshire, is among those whose convictions were quashed at the Court of Appeal in 2021.

Her case is one of 25 under the spotlight at the continuing public inquiry in London led by Sir Wyn Williams.

Watching Mr Bates vs The Post Office has been a strange experience. Over the past few years she's become friends with others who have suffered one of Britain's biggest miscarriages of justice: the real-life Lee Castleton and the cake-baking Jo Hamilton, who both feature in the drama.

She says it has been wierd and sometimes distressing seeing their trauma replayed on TV.

Indeed she has friends among the subpostmasters who still can't bring themselves to watch the show. But the outpouring of support from the public on social media since the series aired has been gratifying.

Alison, 55, said: "It's bringing it all back when you know the actual people the characters are playing. We all know what we've been through but it's really good how ITV have done it. It's just gone massive.

"I think this will make everybody aware of Post Office Ltd and how they have treated us. I've had 13 years of this. It's awful and it's still not ending. They treated us like dirt and now it's our turn to get the story out.

"(At the public inquiry) I'm not allowed to say anything, but my blood is boiling as I listen to them getting interviewed. They are holding back. They know exactly what's happened. None of them dare say anything, it's all 'can't remember, can't recall' It's sickening."

Alison was sentenced to 120 hours of community service after admitting false accounting in 2011.

The public inquiry heard that Alison told former Post Office investigator Christopher Knight in October 2010 that she wanted the Horizon system taken into account because it "wasn't 100 per cent". Knight, however, did not include it in a report to the prosecution team. He also claimed in his witness statement that he "didn't recall" subpostmasters or Crown employees attributing shortfalls to Horizon at the time.

However his stance was demolished during questioning by barrister Emma Price by a series of emails, including one he'd sent to colleagues eight months earlier entitled "Horizon challenges" linking to Press articles.

Alison's partner Richard Walker said: "The premise of the Post Office has always been to defend the Horizon system. There is no way this scandal can ever come to a finale without someone paying the price.

"Somebody said to me look at Windrush, Grenfell, no one has ever been held to account for a major scandal in this country. I hope this will be a first."