PAULA Vennells’ husband helped the disgraced Post Office boss downplay Horizon problems in a chilling rebrand.
Vennells, 65, was the Post Office’s chief executive between 2012 and 2019, earning a total of £5.1m while leading the organisation.
She was grilled today during an inquiry after being in charge when a faulty IT system led to hundreds of sub-postmasters being wrongfully convicted for theft, fraud and false accounting.
The unjust convictions, which happened between 2000 and 2014, were based on information from a new computer system named Horizon.
Former chief executive Vennells, who was formally stripped of her CBE by the King earlier this year, burst into tears today on the first day of the inquiry.
Vennells has two sons with husband John, who she met at Bradford University dinghy club.
Now retired, he was formerly global vice-president at the international engineering firm ABB.
And the inquiry into the scandal revealed that following advice from Ms Vennells’ husband John, the Post Office stopped referring to “bugs”, and instead called them “anomalies and exceptions”.
Last month, the long-running inquiry heard how Vennells asked her “computer literate” husband to help her find another word for “bugs”.
Senior executives felt that this language was “less emotive”.
Wanting to instead find a “non-emotive word for computer bugs, glitches, defects that happen as a matter of course”, Vennells turned to her engineer husband and passed on his advice to then communications chief Mark Davies.
She wrote: “My engineer/computer literate husband sent the following reply to the question: ‘What is a non-emotive word for computer bugs, glitches, defects that happen as a matter of course?
“Answer: ‘Exception or anomaly. You can also say conditional Davies exception/anomaly which only manifests itself under unforeseen circumstances xx’.”
Showing approval, Davies, who served as the Post Office’s communications director from 2012 to 2019, responded: “I like exception v much.” [sic]
During this week’s three-day hearing, Vennells will be grilled about what exactly the Post Office knew about problems with Horizon and when.
Vennells has already broken down in tears twice mid-evidence as she appeared at the Horizon IT inquiry.
She stopped mid-answer and reached for a tissue as she was grilled about why she had told MPs that the Post Office had been successful in every case against subpostmasters.
The 65-year-old ordained priest also became visibly upset as the inquiry looked into the Post Office’s response to the suicide of subpostmaster Martin Griffiths in 2013.
As she gave evidence on Wednesday, Vennells admitted she “made mistakes” but denied there was a conspiracy to cover up the scandal.
She apologised for a comment she made to MPs in June 2012, when she said subpostmasters had been “tempted to put their hands in the till” – adding that it was an “assumption” she made.
The former chief executive said there was no “motivation” to put the needs of the Post Office over the suffering of subpostmasters but added: “There will be many examples of where that is clearly the case because the Post Office got this very wrong.”
She told the inquiry an email she sent to colleagues which suggested the company’s priority was to protect subpostmasters for whom the Horizon system was working “reads badly today”.
Vennells began her evidence by apologising for “all that subpostmasters and families have suffered”.
– 1999
The Horizon IT system starts to be rolled out in Post Office branches across the UK.
– 2000
Alan Bates reports issues with the Horizon IT system.
– 2003
Alan Bates has his contract terminated after refusing to accept liability for the shortfalls in the accounts at his Llandudno branch in North Wales.
– 2004
Lee Castleton, from Bridlington, East Yorkshire, was found to have a £25,000 shortfall at his branch. He was made bankrupt after he lost his legal battle with the Post Office.
– 2009
Computer Weekly magazine breaks the story of seven subpostmasters beginning their fight for justice.
The Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance is established.
– 2010
Pregnant subpostmaster Seema Misra, who ran a post office in West Byfleet, Surrey, is jailed after being accused of stealing £74,000.
– 2015
Post Office boss Paula Vennells tells the business select committee that there is no evidence of miscarriages of justice.
Post Office halts prosecutions of subpostmasters.
– 2017
Legal action is launched against the Post Office by a group of 555 subpostmasters.
– 2019
A High Court judge rules that Horizon contained a number of “bugs, errors and defects” and there was a “material risk” that shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts were caused by the system.
The Post Office agreed to pay out £58million to the 555 subpostmasters.
Post Office boss Paula Vennells is appointed a CBE.
– 2020
The Post Office does not oppose 44 appeals against convictions of subpostmasters.
– 2021
A statutory inquiry looking into the failings of the Horizon system and the wrongful convictions of subpostmasters begins.
The Court of appeal quashes 39 wrongful crown court convictions.
– 2023
The Government announces that every wrongly convicted subpostmaster will be offered £600,000 in compensation.
– 2024
ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office airs for the first time.
The Metropolitan Police say they are looking at “potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions”, for example “monies recovered from subpostmasters as a result of prosecutions or civil actions”.
Asked if she was the “unluckiest CEO in the United Kingdom”, she said she had been “too trusting”.
After detailing a number of cases in which the Post Office had not been successful after subpostmasters blamed Horizon, counsel to the inquiry Jason Beer KC asked: “Why were you telling these parliamentarians that every prosecution involving the Horizon system had been successful and had found in favour of the Post Office?”
After a short pause in which she appeared to compose herself, Ms Vennells said: “I fully accept now that the Post Office…”
She broke off her answer to grab a tissue and held her head in her hands for a brief moment before recomposing herself.
Vennells continued: “The Post Office knew that and I completely accepted.
“Personally I didn’t know that and I’m incredibly sorry that it happened to those people and to so many others.”
Of her comment that subpostmasters were being led into temptation, Vennells said: “That’s a more difficult one to talk about.
“The first thing I would say on that is to apologise, because I’m very aware that that was not the case and it was an assumption I made.”
Ms Vennells explained the assumption was based on “examples of cases” and what she had been told.
Seema Misra, who ran a Post Office in West Byfleet, Surrey, was jailed in 2010.
Seema, who was pregnant at the tie, was accused of stealing £74,000.
Asked what she would say to Ms Vennells, Ms Misra told reporters outside Aldwych House on Wednesday: “Please, for god’s sake, speak truth.
“That’s what we all deserve, we’ve been fighting such a long time … we want to know exactly what happened.”
Ms Misra said she “of course” feels strongly about what Ms Vennells is going to tell the inquiry, adding: “We’ve heard her name so many times.”
She said that no matter what happens, “we won’t give up”.
She also appeared to become emotional as Mr Beer asked her about Mr Griffiths.
An email chain between former Post Office general counsel Susan Crichton and Vennells was shown to the inquiry, in which the latter said “if it is an attempted suicide, as we sadly know, there are usually several contributory factors”.
Asked why she was raising contributory factors, she said she was “very sorry”, adding: “Every email you will see from me about Mr Griffiths, I start with him and how he was and how his family are.
“The Post Office took far too long to deal with it.”
She was also shown an email she sent to former general counsel and company secretary Jane MacLeod, ex-communications director Mark Davies, and current chief financial officer Alisdair Cameron.
The email read: “Our priority is to protect the business and the thousands who operated under the same rules and didn’t get into difficulties.”
She told the inquiry on Wednesday: “I am sorry first of all because this reads badly today.
“That wasn’t how I intended it to be read.
“I had been told, and the inquiry has heard other people say the same, that nothing had been found and so my understanding at this time was that the way the business was operating was an acceptable way, and what I was trying to say here is that we needed to make sure that the business as it was operating remained a priority for us.”
Mr Beer also asked if she believed there was a “conspiracy at the Post Office… to deny you information and to deny you documents and to falsely give you reassurance”.
Ms Vennells replied: “No, I don’t believe that was the case.”
She went on: “I have been disappointed, particularly more recently, listening to evidence of the inquiry where I think I remember people knew more than perhaps either they remembered at the time or I knew of at the time.
“I have no sense that there was any conspiracy at all. My deep sorrow in this is that I think that individuals, myself included, made mistakes, didn’t see things, didn’t hear things.
“I may be wrong but that wasn’t the impression that I had at the time. I have more questions now but a conspiracy feels too far-fetched.”
The inquiry heard that Ms Vennells had prepared a 775-page witness statement, which took seven months to write.
Hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongly convicted of stealing after the Post Office’s defective Horizon accounting system made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.
Sub-postmasters complained about bugs in the system – which in some cases amounted to differences of thousands of pounds – and some even tried to fix the issue with their own money or remortgaging their homes.
Some victims were sent to prison or financially ruined, others were shunned by their communities, while some took their own lives.
