Paula Vennells should be in prison for this shitshow. 

iss Vennells presided over the decision to go to court to challenge 550 postmasters who said they had been falsely accused of stealing from the till.

Some postmasters were jailed, made bankrupt or hounded out of their jobs as fraudsters because glitches in a new computer system had caused shortfalls in their accounts.

On Wednesday the new chief executive Nick Read capitulated after the lengthy court fight and apologised for the torment caused. He also announced the Post Office would pay out close to £58million to settle the case.

But postmasters yesterday directed their ire at Miss Vennells, who left this year. In her final year in the job, she was handed £720,000 – nearly five times the Prime Minister’s £150,00

In January the ordained priest was awarded a CBE for services to the Post Office and to charity, and a month later she was appointed as a non-executive board member to the Cabinet Office. She is now also chairman of Imperial Health NHS Trust.

0 salary – including two bonuses totalling £390,000 on top of her £255,000 wages.

Wot wibble and clubman said. An absolute disgrace. Private Eye have been campaigning about this for years. Given we have had National Enquiries about Bloody Sunday and Hillsborough, why not have a National Enquiry about this? 

https://twitter.com/nickwallis/status/1206576983804653569?s=20

" Judge asks PO QC for agreement with PG QC on this issue. He agrees. Judge says he will make an order which will allow claimants with convictions to make a claim for malicious prosecution against the Post Office should they feel they have a case. "

OOPS

This happened to the sub postmaster in the next village. The post office accused them of fiddling the till, and took away the post office licence. The shop wasn't sustainable for them without it and they sold up quickly and left the village. They were lovely people, I never believed they had done anything wrong. 

" Judge announces this is the end of the Bates v Post Office group litigation. Judge comments: the Horizon trial involved detailed analysis of the PO’s IT system. Says he has very grave concerns about the veracity of evidence provided by Fujitsu employees in previous court cases... "

Good. Right result at last.

As HD says, Private Eye been all over this for years.

always the fooking way

Judge announces this is the end of the Bates v Post Office group litigation. Judge comments: the Horizon trial involved detailed analysis of the PO’s IT system. Says he has very grave concerns about the veracity of evidence provided by Fujitsu employees in previous court cases...

… against Subpostmasters. As a result of this the judge has sent all the evidence to the Director of Public Prosecutions with specific regard to previous court cases...

… He is drawing specific attention to evidence from Fujitsu employees given in previous court cases. It is up to the DPP as to what they do next...

!

I acted for someone caught up in this. The Post Office were utter utter aunts and totally fooked them over for no good reason at all.