Tim Waygood

SHAME ON PAULA VENNELLS Paula Vennells cried at the inquiry. Read her emails before you feel sorry for her. Paula Vennells ran the @PostOffice from 2012 to 2019. Its computer system, Horizon, showed money missing from branches when none was missing. More than 900 postmasters were prosecuted between 1999 and 2015. Some went to prison. Families lost homes, savings and reputations. The inquiry @PostOffInquiry says at least 13 people are thought to have taken their own lives because of the scandal. Now look at what was happening at the top. In July 2013 Paula Vennells asked her husband for a less emotional word than bugs. He suggested exception or anomaly. The inquiry's lawyer called it Orwellian. In August 2013 she wrote that the hope of the mediation scheme for postmasters was to avoid or minimise compensation. At the inquiry she agreed it was possibly her hope. After a row with her top lawyer, Susan Crichton, Paula Vennells wrote that Susan Crichton was possibly more loyal to her professional rules and put her integrity as a lawyer above the interests of the business. A lawyer with integrity. Terrible for business. In September 2013 Paula Vennells asked for a Horizon risk reference to be removed from the Royal Mail @RoyalMail share sale prospectus, then told the Post Office chair she had earned her keep. Around the same time postmaster Martin Griffiths attempted suicide. Paula Vennells emailed that such cases usually have several contributory factors. Martin Griffiths died 3 weeks later. Former general counsel Chris Aujard told the inquiry that in November 2013 the executive team favoured ending prosecutions and Paula Vennells interjected that the Post Office should keep taking some. His notes recorded reluctance to stop because prosecutions acted as a deterrent. Prosecutions carried on for another 2 years. In December 2014 a @BBC One Show film showed postmasters fighting to clear their names. Paula Vennells wrote that Jo Hamilton lacked passion and that the rest of the film was hype and human interest. She told colleagues she was more bored than outraged. Jo Hamilton had been accused of stealing £36K. Her conviction was quashed in 2021. In February 2015 Paula Vennells told MPs the Post Office had won every Horizon case in court. In 2024 she admitted that was false and said it was unintentional. In March 2015 she wrote to Post Office minister Jo Swinson that there was no reason to conclude any prosecution was unsafe. Jo Swinson later said the letter misled her. @guardian reported she collected more than £4.5M in pay and bonuses as chief executive. She was given a CBE for services to the Post Office and charity while 555 postmasters were suing the Post Office. She left the Post Office during that court case. From April 2019 she chaired Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (@imperialNHS) for £60K a year. A document shown to the inquiry says the government shareholder asked in 2014 whether she was still the right person to lead, citing lack of knowledge. Lesley Sewell, her former head of IT, told the inquiry that Paula Vennells contacted her 4 times in 2020 and 2021, hoping preparation might help avoid an independent inquiry. Lesley Sewell blocked her number. In January 2024 Dame Moya Greene, former Royal Mail chief executive, told Paula Vennells she thought she knew and could no longer support her. Paula Vennells denied it. Then came May 2024. 3 days at the public inquiry. 775 page witness statement. 7 months to prepare it. Tears. Apologies. She said she had been too trusting. She said information had been kept from her. She named 5 former executives as having let her down. She apologised to Jo Hamilton for being rude in her email. The inquiry lawyer asked if she was the unluckiest CEO in the UK. Unlucky.. is one word for it. There is another way to look at the record. A CEO who wrote that mediation was meant to avoid or minimise compensation. A CEO who told MPs something she later admitted was false. A CEO who wrote to a minister that she saw no reason to conclude any prosecution was unsafe. A CEO who collected a reported £4.5M while postmasters lost everything. A CEO who later told the inquiry she had been too trusting. More than 1.2M people signed a petition for her to lose the CBE. The King forfeited it on 23 February 2024. As far as I can find, nobody at the top has been charged and nobody has reported her repaying a bonus. The final inquiry report is not out yet. Police are still investigating. Jo Hamilton, the woman Paula Vennells wrote off as lacking passion, said afterwards she is in two minds on whether the apology was genuine or came from being so publicly ashamed. The emails are public. Read them. Then decide who in this story deserves your sympathy. Share this. Postmasters were ignored for years while the people above them were paid, decorated and given new jobs. Sources @itvnews @DailyMail @ComputerWeekly @Independent @PostOffInquiry