Paula Vennells ‘knew of Horizon IT faults’

Paula Vennells “slavishly” maintained that the Horizon IT system was robust despite knowing it was faulty, her former Royal Mail counterpart has told the Post Office inquiry.

Dame Moya Greene was chief executive of the Royal Mail between 2010 and 2018, which included the period up until 2012 when the Post Office was a subsidiary.

The inquiry had already been shown messages sent by Greene to Vennells, the former chief executive of the Post Office, earlier this year which read: “I don’t know what to say. I think you knew”.

When asked what she meant by the comments in a hearing on Friday, Greene said: “Gosh. I think she knew, on the basis of the evidence that has emerged in this inquiry, that there were faults in the system.

“I think that Post Office executives, including Mrs Vennells, continued to — slavishly, in my opinion — adhere to the position that was not tenable on the basis of the evidence presented here — that there were no faults,” she added.

The text messages demonstrate how her view of Vennells, who handed back her CBE earlier this year, changed as more evidence emerged at the public inquiry.

Initially she had sent messages of support to Vennells because she believed the ordained priest had been “vilified” for her role in the scandal.

Greene’s message from May 2022 read: “Horizon is the villain here and thank god we finally learnt about the frailty in the system. We think of it is computerised, it is untamperable, infallible… not so. Stand tall. I know you are a good person and would never, never accuse anyone in the wrong.”

Jo Swinson, who served as postal affairs minister on two separate occasions during the coalition government, told the inquiry on Friday that Vennells told her “with something of a pained expression” that subpostmasters “had their fingers in the till”.

The former Liberal Democrat leader said that Vennells was trying to convey the message that “although these might seem to be lovely people, clearly some of them are actually just at it”.

She said she was reassured that Vennells “spoke not only with the standing of a CEO of a major institution, but also with the moral authority of an ordained vicar”.

Jo Swinson, the former Liberal Democrat leader, criticised Vennells at the inquiry

POST OFFICE HORIZON IT INQUIRY/PA

Swinson told the inquiry that she recalled “probing Paula Vennells on matters relating to Horizon on several occasions in person”.

She also said Vennells “knew there was a problem with an unsafe witness, and she never told me”.

Swinson was referring to leading Fujitsu engineer Gareth Jenkins, who is the subject of a Metropolitan Police investigation on suspicion of perjury and perverting the course of justice.

Swinson described a memo labelling Jenkins as an unsafe witness as a “bombshell”, and that she was “really sorry that I asked lots of questions and it wasn’t enough”.

More than 700 subpostmasters were prosecuted by the Post Office and handed criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015 as Fujitsu’s faulty system made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.

Hundreds of victims are awaiting compensation despite the previous government announcing that those who have had convictions quashed are eligible for £600,000 payouts.