Paula Vennells, the post office’s former chief executive, named five managers she said were responsible for the Horizon scandal; these include a missing IT expert and a former in-house lawyer who refused to take part in a public inquiry.
In tearful statements on the third day before the inquest, Vennells denied giving “cowardly and self-serving” evidence but was quick to name people he claimed had let him down.
Vennells, who was head of the Post Office from 2012 to 2019, repeatedly claimed he was not briefed by senior staff and argued he was “too trusting” in key managers.
Between 1996 and 2015, hundreds of Post Office branch operators were prosecuted, hounded for money and in some cases driven to suicide after bugs in the Horizon software system created financial deficits in their branches. The Post Office continued its fight against branch operators seeking justice until 2019.
“I loved the Post Office,” Vennells tearfully told the inquest, but was accused of talking “complete nonsense” by Sam Stein KC, representing the victims.
When Stein asked to “please give us the names” of people who “let him down” by withholding information as the scandal developed, he listed senior IT executives Mike Young and Lesley, whom the investigation failed to find. Sewell and general counsels Susan Crichton, Chris Aujard and Jane MacLeod.
The chairman of the inquiry, Sir Wyn Williams, a former high court judge, had said at the start of the session that MacLeod had refused to attend the inquiry or participate remotely and that he could not force him to do so because he lived in Australia.
The Met police are monitoring the investigation as part of an investigation into possible fraud offenses committed during the prosecution of Post Office branch operators. The Solicitors Regulation Authority, which could bring misconduct charges, is also a key participant in the investigation, giving it access to documents.
Vennells told the inquest he regretted MacLeod’s refusal to appear. He claimed that he had twice raised concerns with in-house counsel about the Post Office’s strategy of forcing victims to abandon their campaign for justice, at a time when problems with the IT system were known internally.
In a strategy document seen at the inquiry, published in 2017, the Post Office’s legal team warned that the cost of taking legal action with post office operators could be “extremely high” and said they believed “a better solution is to force claimants to sue”. a collective position in which they will either drop the claims or seek a reasonable solution.”
The newspaper said the aim was to target those who finance and insure post office operators’ claims, who would make a “cold and reasoned assessment of whether they will receive payment”.
Vennells said: “The questions I asked Jane on these two occasions were: ‘This feels completely wrong to me, what can we do?’ [and] ‘We should not be in a process where we are fighting with superiors in court.’”
Vennells claimed that when he first asked the question, MacLeod told him the Post Office would try to resolve the case, and the second time he said “the view we took from lead counsel…the only way to resolve this was to go through the matter thoroughly”. ”.
He added: “I deeply regret the class action and have seen all the paperwork behind it and given the decisions that have been made and where we are today, that is an unacceptable reading.”
Vennells broke down under questioning from victims’ advocates, who accused him of hiding a deceptive nature by using “disgusting managerial talk”, living under a “cloud of denial” and presenting “cowardly self-serving” evidence.
Edward Henry KC told Vennells, who was ordained a priest: “You preach mercy but you do not practice it.”
Relating to: Hundreds of Post Office Horizon victims to be exonerated by parliamentary decision
The inquest heard an email Vennells wrote on BBC One’s The One Show in 2014 about a report on the Post Office scandal.
“Exciting and human attention,” the executive wrote to his team. “It’s not easy for me to be objective, but I was more bored than angry. MP quoted – who? – was full of fuss and inaccurate. “Jo Hamilton had no passion and admitted making false statements on television.”
Hamilton, 66, played by Monica Dolan in ITV’s Mr Bates vs The Post Office, was falsely accused of stealing more than £36,000 from the post office branch in South Warnborough, Hampshire. He pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of false accounting to avoid prison time, and the lawsuit was filed in 2006.
On Friday, attorney Tim Moloney KC, who represents the victims, was just feet away from Vennells as he read the contents of the email.
Vennells turned to Hamilton to apologize: “Of course, what I want to say is that I’m very, very sorry… I regret everything I wrote.”
Hamilton later said: “I don’t think that was sincere. He was caught with his pants down.”