The shamed former boss of the Post Office Paula Vennells has been sworn in to the Horizon scandal inquiry this morning amid claims she misled MPs by denying she ‘knew’ postmasters had been wrongly convicted of various theft offences.
The disgraced ex-chief executive has begun her three days of evidence to the Horizon IT inquiry on Wednesday amid claims she covered-up the Post Office’s knowledge of bugs in the faulty accounting software.
Vennells issued a grovelling three-pronged apology as she came face to face with the victims of the Horizon false accounting scandal at the inquiry today.
The 65-year-old businesswoman said she was ‘very, very sorry’ as she took to the witness box at the public inquiry into why hundreds of branch managers were wrongly prosecuted amid claims they stole from the business.
Hundreds of subpostmasters were prosecuted by the business between 1999 and 2015 after Horizon, owned by Japanese company Fujitsu, made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.
The scandal was deemed the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British legal history, while Ms Vennells’ central role in it was portrayed in ITV’s acclaimed drama series Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, prompting much public anger at what happened.
Ms Vennells, who was chief executive at the company from 2012 to 2019, began her evidence by turning directly to campaigners and victims, sat a short distance away from her.
Paula Vennells, 65, was CEO of the Post Office for much of the time subpostmasters were being wrongly prosecuted
Paula Vennells is sworn in to the Horizon inquiry at Aldwych House today
Mock-up of the email sent by former Post Office boss Paula Vennells after she received detailed case files of eight subpostmasters that had potentially been wrongly convicted
Vennells did not answer any questions as she entered Aldwych House earlier this morning. At the beginning of her evidence to the Horizon IT inquiry today, Vennells was given a self-incrimination warning.
The warning made clear she could decline to answer a question and the chairman Sir Wyn Williams said her objection would be ruled upon thereafter.
In response to the warning, Ms Vennells said: ‘Thank you Sir Wyn… I plan to answer all questions.’
She said: ‘I would just like to say, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to do this in person, how sorry I am for all that subpostmasters and their families and others who suffered as a result of all of the matters that the inquiry has been looking into for so long.
‘I followed and listened to all of the human impact statements and I was very affected by them. I remember listening to one postmaster whose name I noted who said that he would like somebody to go and stand outside his old Post Office with him so he could tell them exactly what he had gone through. I would do that. I am very, very sorry.’
She also said sorry to the campaigners and investigators, whose work she said was made ‘so much harder’.
She added: ‘My third apology is really about today.
‘I will answer the questions truthfully. I am very aware they will be very difficult to listen to, for you and for me, and I ask for your understanding in advance of that.’
Paula Vennells was told almost a decade ago that some postmasters had potentially been wrongly convicted
Ms Vennells, wearing a grey trouser suit and orange scarf, was met by bustling crowds as she arrived at the inquiry centre in central London shortly before 8am, two hours before her eagerly-awaited evidence began.
Seema Misra, who ran a Post Office in West Byfleet, Surrey, and was jailed in 2010 after being accused of stealing £74,000, told reporters urged Ms Vennells to ‘for god’s sake, speak truth’.
The inquiry room on the fifth floor of Aldwych House was busy with campaigners, lawyers and journalists, but fell silent as inquiry chairman Sir Wyn Williams entered the room.
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She was told by Sir Wyn she had the legal right to decline to answer a question if it risked self-incrimination.
She replied: ‘I plan to answer all questions.’
More than 700 subpostmasters were prosecuted for theft by the Post Office and handed criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015 as Fujitsu’s faulty IT system, known as Horizon, made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.
Many were sent to jail and bankrupted, while at least four are believed to have taken their own lives over it.
Prosecutions continued to happen under Ms Vennells’ watch despite repeatedly being told there were concerns about the reliability of the evidence.
Ms Vennells initially submitted a short statement to the long-running inquiry three years ago in which her legal team said she had been ‘deeply disturbed’ after judges ruled the prosecution of subpostmasters was ‘an affront to justice’.
Her statement added: ‘What has come to light, above all in relation to the conduct of private prosecutions of sub-postmasters over a lengthy period, was clearly unacceptable.’
But today marks the first time Ms Vennells, an ordained Anglican priest, has given live evidence to the inquiry – and offered her the opportunity to respond to a litany of allegations about her time at the Post Office.
Earlier, speaking ahead of her appearance, Ms Hamilton has said she Vennells ‘knew’ people were being wrongly convicted.
She told GMB she ‘almost fainted’ after pleading guilty to false accounting charges and being told she would not receive a custodial sentence.
‘I was so relieved, I had tears pouring down my face,’ Ms Hamilton said.
‘I think she has to have known it’s been going on, she can’t be stupid to be CEO and you have to know.
‘But how much she knew we’re going to find out, but she had to know what was going on because she was head of the tree.
‘I sat behind her in the select committee in 2015 and you could see from the body language, I believe she knew then in 2015.’
The probe previously heard Ms Vennells had hoped that there would not be an independent inquiry – even having her number blocked by ex-head of IT Lesley Sewell after seeking her help to avoid one.
She is due to be questioned under oath just hours after an email surfaced which showed Ms Vennells describe potential wrongful convictions of subpostmasters as ‘very disturbing’ more than a year before the company halted prosecutions.
ITV News reported that the October 2013 email, as well as a recording of a phone conversation involving Ms Vennells, confirmed she was sent case files of eight subpostmasters.
The email from Ms Vennells to Ron Warmington, a forensic accountant with firm Second Sight who were drafted in to review independently the Horizon system, read: ‘Apart from finding them very disturbing (I defy anyone not to), I am now even better informed.
‘The form you have devised is very helpful as it removes some of the emotion and highlights very clearly areas we need to address as well as investigate for the mediation process, which I hope will bring closure for some of these people.
‘As I said… I take this very seriously…’
In 2015, she told MPs she had seen no evidence of miscarriages of justice and that there were no faults in the Horizon system.
Counsel to the inquiry are likely to probe Ms Vennells on whether she deliberately misled the business select committee.
The revelation has been described by Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi as the ‘smoking gun’ that is the cover-up of the Horizon IT scandal and has called on her to ‘finally admit the truth’.
The probe previously heard Ms Vennells had hoped that there would not be an independent inquiry
The Post Office has come under fire since the broadcast of ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, which put the Horizon scandal under the spotlight
Earlier this year, ITV bosses announced the first episode of Mr Bates vs. the Post Office had been watched by 9.2million viewers
Jason Beer KC previously told the probe she made a false statement in 2012 to then Conservative MP Oliver Letwin when she wrote about the prosecution of subpostmasters, in which she said: ‘In every instance, the court has found in our favour.’
Questions about the Post Office’s alleged ‘defensive and self-absorbed’ culture also loom over Ms Vennells – with the business’s current chief financial officer Alisdair Cameron speaking of an ‘unacceptable, self-serving’ relationship with subpostmasters.
He told the probe that Ms Vennells had been ‘clear in her conviction from the day I joined that nothing had gone wrong’ – adding that she did not believe there had been any miscarriages of justice.
She has not yet spoken in detail about her role in the scandal, but previously apologised for the ‘devastation caused to subpostmasters and their families’.
Ms Vennells was made a CBE in the 2019 New Years Honours List ‘for services to the Post Office and to charity’, but voluntarily handed the honour back after a petition attracted more than 1.2 million signatures.
The Metropolitan Police previously said they are looking at ‘potential fraud offences’ arising out of the prosecution of subpostmasters; for example, ‘monies recovered… as a result of prosecutions or civil actions’.
Two Fujitsu experts, who were witnesses in the trials, are being investigated for perjury and perverting the course of justice – but nobody has been arrested since the inquiry was launched in January 2020.
There are unlikely to be any criminal charges until inquiry chairman Sir Wyn Williams completes his final report, which is expected to be published next year.
In the meantime, hundreds of subpostmasters are still awaiting compensation despite the Government announcing that those who have had convictions quashed are eligible for £600,000 payouts.