A petition to strip the Post Office’s former chief executive of her CBE has passed 730,000 signatures as fury grows over the Horizon postmaster scandal.
Paula Vennells, who served as CEO from 2012 to 2019, has faced renewed calls to give back the CBE this week – after the Post Office denied there were any problems with a faulty accounting system that led to more than 700 sub-postmasters being prosecuted.
Vennells, who formerly served as a parish priest, left the Post Office with a CBE for services to the organisation as well as to charity – and a £389,000 bonus.
The petition took off after a new ITV drama aired about the suffering of the sub-postmasters and has so far collected more than 730,000 signatures.
Sub-postmaster Jo Hamilton, 66, was falsely accused of stealing £36,000 from a village shop in South Warnborough, Hampshire, and eventually pleaded guilty to false accounting in fear of going to jail.
Mrs Hamilton said about Vennells: ‘If she’s got any moral compass at all, she should give it back. I would give it back before it was taken off me.
‘But in spite of being a vicar, she doesn’t seem to have any moral code.’
Paula Vennells (pictured) served as CEO of the Post Office from 2012 to 2019
Vennells, who formerly served as a parish priest, left the Post Office with a CBE for services to the organisation as well as to charity – and a £389,000 bonus
The post office carried out about 900 prosecutions between 2000 and 2015, securing 700 convictions for offences including theft and fraud and sending 236 victims to prison.
A further 2,800 managed to escape prosecution but were asked to pay money back. Four people committed suicide over the scandal while others died before their convictions could be reversed.
Vennells apologised as the Court of Appeal overturned 39 convictions of former subpostmasters.
‘I am truly sorry for the suffering caused to the 39 sub-postmasters as a result of their convictions which were overturned last week,’ she said in 2021.
Victim Mrs Hamilton told The Times: ‘They’ve made people’s lives a misery and they’ve committed crimes. It’s not just a computer problem. This is absolute corruption at its worst; state-sponsored corruption.’
The mother bought the village shop in 2001 and became the sub-postmaster two years later.
Her nightmare started when the Horizon system started showing shortfalls in her accounts in 2003 – at one stage showing the amount double before her eyes.
The petition took off after a new ITV drama aired about the suffering of the sub-postmasters and has so far collected more than 700,000 signatures
Vennells has faced more calls to hand back her CBE this week after she denied there were any problems with a faulty accounting system that led to more than 700 sub-postmasters being prosecuted
Jo Hamilton, 66, was falsely accused of stealing £36,000 from a village shop in South Warnborough, Hampshire, and eventually pleaded guilty to false accounting in fear of going to jail
Mrs Hamilton’s nightmare started when the Horizon system started showing shortfalls in her accounts in 2003 – at one stage showing the amount double before her eyes
Mrs Hamilton bought the village shop in 2001 and became the sub-postmaster two years later
Assuming it was her fault, Mrs Hamilton did not tell her husband what was happening to her for months.
‘I always thought what it said must be right because it’s a computer and I’m a dumb-dumb,’ she said.
‘I never gave it a minute’s thought that the Post Office would do that to me. And then you ring up the helpdesk and they say: ”Well, you are the only one that’s had problems with it.”
‘I didn’t want to let anyone down and I genuinely thought all this money would come back.’
When the money failed to return, Mrs Hamilton was forced to tell her husband and they remortgaged their house, borrowed from friends and maxed out credit cards to repay what was missing.
The financial nightmare kept getting worse, causing Mrs Hamilton to suffer from pains in her arm and chest. She was eventually sacked by the Post Office and charged with stealing £36,000.
It emerged years later that the Post Office’s own investigator had found no evidence of theft.
‘It’s perverting the course of justice. It’s my inner rage that’s kept me sane: They are not going to get away with this,’ she said.
The victim had agreed to plead guilty to a smaller charge of false accounting in 2008, avoiding prison. Under this deal she still had to pay back the supposedly missing £36,000.
Mrs Hamilton was forced to remortgage again and the village donated £6,000 to her cause.
‘I wouldn’t be where I am had I not had the love of the community,’ she said.
Mrs Hamilton started a new job cleaning people’s houses and became the faces of a campaign by Alan Bates, a sub-postmaster from north Wales.
The characters of Mrs Hamilton and Mr Bates both star in a new ITV drama titled Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
Mr Bates vs the Post Office is on ITV1/ITVX.