Paula Vennells will finally be grilled under oath today for her role in the Post Office scandal that ruined the lives of hundreds of subpostmasters.
In a highly anticipated moment, the former CEO of the crisis-hit organisation will give evidence over three days at the Horizon IT Inquiry. Ms Vennells, who ran the Post Office between 2012 and 2019, has kept a low profile in the face of mounting questions over what bosses knew – and when – about the faulty IT system that resulted in subpostmasters being accused of fraud and theft. More than 900 people were wrongly prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 – including 700 by the Post Office itself.
Ms Vennells was thrust into the spotlight earlier this year after the ITV drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, triggered a wave of public fury. After the hit show, more than a million people signed a petition demanding Ms Vennells be stripped of her CBE, which was awarded in 2019 for services to the Post Office.
Handing back her gong in January, Ms Vennells said she was “truly sorry for the devastation caused to the sub-postmasters and their families, whose lives were torn apart by being wrongly accused and wrongly prosecuted as a result of the Horizon system”. She added: “I now intend to continue to focus on assisting the inquiry and will not make any further public comment until it has concluded.”
Follow live updates from the Post Office scandal Inquiry below
Paula Vennells arrives at the Post Office Inquiry
Paula Vennells has just arrived at the Post Office Inquiry ahead of her long awaited evidence session.
Surrounded by a scrum of photographers, Ms Vennells made no comment as she entered the Inquiry HQ.
Ex-Post Office official blocked Paula Vennells’ number after she sought help to ‘avoid inquiry’
An ex-Post Office official claimed at the Inquiry last week that she blocked Paula Vennells’ number after she sought help to “avoid an independent inquiry”.
Former head of IT at the scandal-hit organisation Lesley Sewell told the Horizon IT Inquiry that Ms Vennells, the ex-chief executive, contacted her four times in 2020 and 2021. It was five years after Ms Sewell had left the company and after hundreds of former subpostmasters were wrongly prosecuted.
Ms Sewell told the probe in her witness statement that she blocked Ms Vennells’ number because she “did not feel comfortable with her contacting me”. Her statement added: “To the best of my knowledge and research, Paula Vennells contacted me four times in 2020 and 2021 via either email, telephone call or text message. It has taken me some time to locate all of these communications.
Vennells told there’s ‘no way out’ by Post Office scandal victim
A former subpostmistress has warned ex-Post Office boss Paul Vennells that campaigners want the truth and she is “heading into the corner where there’s no way out”.
Jo Hamilton was falsely accused of stealing £36,000 from the branch she ran in South Warnborough, Hampshire, in 2006 and was persuaded to plead guilty to the lesser charge of false accounting to avoid going to jail. Her conviction was overturned in 2021.
Ms Hamilton, who was played by Monica Dolan in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, said if she was in Ms Vennells’ position, she would “just put my hands up” and say, “I’m really sorry and this is what happened’. Read more here
Where is Paula Vennells now
Paula Vennells knew of flaws with the Post Office computer system, according to an alleged leaked recording, writes our colleague Saffron Otter.
In a taped meeting from July 2, 2013, obtained by ITV News at Ten, the former boss, who was at the helm of the Post Office during the historic scandal, and several executives appear to be spoken to by two forensic accountants who had launched an investigation into possible issues with the faulty IT system.
Ron Warmington and Ian Henderson from the firm Second Sight had reportedly warned them that the Post Office was not being sufficiently transparent about the risk of branch accounts having been accessed remotely. It comes just weeks after Paula was stripped of her CBE after “bringing the honours system into disrepute”.
She received the honour in 2019, but her award came under huge criticism in light of the Horizon scandal, thrown back into the spotlight with ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office – which left viewers disgusted. As a result, 1.2million people signed a petition demanding Ms Vennells’ CBE was fortified.
Read more of the profile of Ms Vennells here