Post Office boss Paula Vennells knew about covert team that could change sub-postmasters’ accounts remotely

FORMER Post Office boss Paula Vennells knew about a covert team that could change sub-postmasters’ accounts remotely.

She was aware of allegations concerning the unit at Fujitsu HQ — two years before she appeared in Parliament amid the Horizon IT scandal, recordings reveal.

PA

Paula Vennells knew about a covert team that could change sub-postmasters’ accounts remotely[/caption]

The company’s chief lawyer Susan Crichton can be heard on a 2015 audio tape, obtained by ­Channel 4 News, revealing Ms Vennells had been informed of the allegation.

Ms Crichton said: “[Paula] knows about the allegation.

“She knows we are working on it.

“She’s got everything.

“The way that I’ve tried to brief Paula is, as soon as I have evidence that, you know, that there is a problem, she knows about it the next minute.”

Former Post Office union official Michael Rudkin also says he was told about remote access, and shown it in operation, when he visited Fujitsu HQ in Bracknell, Berks, in 2008.

Hundreds of Post Office workers were wrongly convicted of fraud and other offences between 1999 and 2015 because of the Horizon system.