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Minister Kevin Hollinrake calls for ex-Post Office chief Paula Vennells to hand back her CBE – as he backs prosecutions over Horizon IT scandal which saw subpostmasters accused of crimes they didn’t commit Paula Vennells was handed a CBE by the royals in the 2019 honours list By Elizabeth Haigh
Published: 10:55 GMT, 3 January 2024 | Updated: 11:30 GMT, 3 January 2024
The Postal Services Minister Kevin Hollinrake has called for the former chief of the Post Office Paula Vennells to hand back her CBE as he backs prosecutions over the Horizon IT scandal.
Hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongly accused and even convicted of fraud and other financial crimes they did not commit due to an IT error relating to the Fujitsu system.
Paula Vennells, who is featured in ITV’s new drama Mr Bates V The Post Office, was CEO of the post office from 2012 until 2019, at the time the company was pushing prosecutions through the courts.
She was given a CBE in the 2019 New Year Honours List for services to the Post Office and to charity, but she is facing calls to return it since the scale of one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British history was revealed.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain this morning, Mr Hollinrake said: ‘Ultimately you’ve got a responsibility here as Chief Executive, if I was Paual Venells I would seriously look at handing that [CBE] back voluntarily.’
Paula Vennells, who is featured in ITV ‘s new drama Mr Bates V The Post Office, was CEO of the post office from 2012 until 2019
He added that if sufficient evidence is found, he would support prosecutions against those responsible for covering up the IT errors which led to people losing thousands of pounds and their lives being destroyed.
Absolutely I do if there’s evidence there that people are guilty of a crime [at] the Post Office, at whatever level.
When asked by Richard Madeley, Mr Hollinrake said: ‘It is not me or you to judge what the police should take forward as a prosecution or not, that’s an independent part of our system.’
But he added he ‘absolutely’ supports prosecutions ‘if there’s evidence there that people are guilty of a crime [at] the Post Office, at whatever level.’
The minister said he was confident the ongoing enquiry would ‘identify who is responsible in the Post Office and or indeed potentially in Fujitsu and those people wherever possible should be held to account.’
It comes after it was revealed the inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal had found ‘more than enough evidence’ for police to launch a criminal investigation into senior staff.’
The Post Office wrongfully prosecuted more than 700 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses between 1999 and 2015 for theft, fraud and false accounting based on information from a recently installed computer system called Horizon.
The Postal Services Minister Kevin Hollinrake has called for the former chief of the Post Office to hand back her CBE
In 1999, the Post Office rolled out the Horizon accounting IT system, but faults in the software led to shortfalls in branch accounts.
Postmasters were required to ‘make good’ the discrepancies with their own money or face immediate suspension, dismissal or worse.
Postmasters have claimed that Post Office senior staff covered up dozens of bugs and should be investigated for perverting the course of justice.
The inquiry has been shown correspondence which show how senior staff demanded the Post Office hurried up with prosecuting people, years after concerns were raised.
Investigators’ bonuses were determined by how much money was recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act – and one postmistress was prosecuted for theft after her investigator reported there was insufficient evidence.
Lawyers want the chairman of the inquiry, Sir Wyn Williams, to hand over files to the director of public prosecutions when it finishes next year.
The Met Police, which is currently probing two ex Horizon IT experts for perjury, is also taking part in the inquiry and has access to key documents.
Three witnesses are said to have already been warned they do not have to answer questions in case they incriminate themselves, while another two ex employees are expected to receive the same warning.