Post Office boss Paul Vennells 'wanted to prosecute postmasters despite warning'

24 April 2024 , 16:57

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Post Office boss Paul Vennells 'wanted to prosecute postmasters despite warning'

Ex-Post Office boss Paul Vennells wanted to continue to prosecute subpostmasters despite concerns from senior officials in 2013, the Horizon IT inquiry has heard.

The Post Office's former head in-house lawyer Chris Aujard told the inquiry: “My recollection is that the executive committee were in favour of ceasing prosecutions entirely. But, when that proposition was discussed at the committee, Paula interjected or made the comment that the proposition should not be taken as what I’d intended it to be – never bringing prosecutions – but rather there should be limited prosecutorial activity and that the Post Office should continue to take some prosecutions."

He added: “I felt that criminal prosecutions cause great distress and anxiety and didn’t have a place in a business such as the Post Office.”

Paula Vennells was played by actress Lia Williams in ITV's drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office (ITV)

Ms Vennells, who was Post Office chief executive from 2012 to 2019, also did not want to use the word "bugs" when talking about the faulty Horizon IT system as she wanted a more “non-emotive” description, the inquiry heard on Tuesday. In 2013 she took advice from her “computer literate” husband who suggested “exception or anomaly” as an alternative word.

Counsel to the inquiry Julian Blake said the email exchange between Ms Vennells and the Post Office’s then-communications chief discussing the language used around Horizon was "absolutely Orwellian" and suggested it was an example of "smoke and mirrors".

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Earlier this month the inquiry heard Ms Vennells stubbornly defended the Horizon IT system, instead suggesting there was a “temptation” for subpostmasters to borrow money from tills. She has been summoned to give evidence to the inquiry for three days in May.

After ITV’s Mr Bates vs The Post Office shone a light on the scandal, more than 1.2million people signed a petition demanding she be stripped of her CBE. She later handed it back.

Former People Services Director at the Post Office Angela van den Bogerd, who was played by Corrie's Katherine Kelly in the drama, has been called to give evidence over a two-day grilling on Thursday and Friday. More than 900 subpostmasters were convicted for theft and fraud between 1999 and 2015 after the flawed Horizon IT system made it look like they were stealing money.

Sophie Huskisson