Hidden faces of Post Office scandal - people in power lurking in background
The widely talked about four-part series Mr Bates vs the Post Office has left viewers appalled at how the lives of ordinary men and women were left in tatters after a glitchy computer accounting system wrongly detected financial shortfalls in Post Office branches up and down the UK.
As explained in the often heartbreaking ITV drama, more than 736 blameless individuals were prosecuted by the Post Office between the years 2000 and 2014, resulting in bankruptcy, prison sentences, and substantial reputational damage. Tragically, it's understood that at least four instances of suicide have been linked to the terrible toll the ordeal took on so many.
Regarded as the greatest miscarriage of justice in British history, many of those affected are still enduring painful waits to get their names cleared, while those at the top continued to lead lives of success and privilege. While people up and down the country call for the victims' convictions to be overturned, we take a look at those in the background of the catastrophe, some of whom still enjoy influential positions of power.
Paula Vennells
Campaigners have called for a number of individuals to be held to account (PA Wire/Press Association Images)Paula Vennells first joined the Post Office as group network director in 2007, and, in 2012, promoted to Post Office chief executive. Vennells led the Post Office at a time when 555 postmasters were taken to the High Court and, in several cases, left in financial ruin.
The former businesswoman, who centres prominently in Mr Bates, stepped down from her position in 2019, one year after being awarded a CBE in the New Year's Honours List. At the time, the Post Office stated that this honoured marked Venneell's contribution to turning the organisation from one that 'was losing £120m a year to one which is now in profit'.
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In her letter of response to the BEIS Select Committee's 2020 Inquiry into Horizon, Vennells wrote that she had 'raised the question repeatedly, both internally and with Fujitsu', as to whether branch information could be accessed remotely, and 'was always given the same answer: that it was not possible for branch records to be altered remotely without the sub-postmaster’s knowledge'.
Following her resignation, Vennells, who is an ordained Church of England deacon, went on to work as associate minister in the Diocese of St Albans. She also previously held posts as director of the board for retail chains Morrisons and Dunelm, and the chair of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
In April 2021, Vennells, who was appointed as a Cabinet Office advisor in 2019, stated that she was 'truly sorry' for the 'suffering' caused after 39 former subpostmasters had their convictions overturned. She stated: "It is obvious that my involvement with the Post Office has become a distraction from the good work undertaken in the Diocese of St Albans and in the parishes I serve. I have therefore stepped back with immediate effect from regular parish ministry, and intend to focus fully on working with the ongoing Government inquiry to ensure the affected subpostmasters and wider public get the answers they deserve."
A petition that clocked up more than one million names called upon the government to strip Vennells of her CBE, with a passage arguing: "Paula Vennells has subsequently refused to answer questions from these staff as well as the media and has refused to apologise for the cover-up, misery and trauma caused which has brought not only herself but the Post Office, the honours system and government into disrepute." It has since been announced that Vennells will now hand back the honour with immediate effect.
This week, Vennells announced she would return her CBE, issuing a rare statement. She said: "I continue to support and focus on co-operating with the inquiry and expect to be giving evidence in the coming months. I have so far maintained my silence as I considered it inappropriate to comment publicly while the inquiry remains ongoing and before I have provided my oral evidence. I am, however, aware of the calls from sub-postmasters and others to return my CBE.
"I have listened and I confirm that I return my CBE with immediate effect. I am truly sorry for the devastation caused to the sub-postmasters and their families, whose lives were torn apart by being wrongly accused and wrongly prosecuted as a result of the Horizon system. I now intend to continue to focus on assisting the inquiry and will not make any further public comment until it has concluded."
A representative for Vennells previously told the Mirror that she is determined to assist in whatever way she can so that lessons are learned.
Fujitsu
Ms Vennells told a court hearing that Fujitsu had assured her that it was not possible for the sub-postmaster's Horizon boxes to be accessed remotely and that the system was sound. However, in 2019, a High Court judge ruled that Horizon was not 'remotely robust' between the years 2000 and 2010 and that it had various 'bugs, errors and defects'. As recently reported by ITV News, Fujitsu, the firm behind Horizon, is still regarded as one of the government's 'Strategic Suppliers', which usually means it makes more than £100 million in contracts each year. This comes amid calls for the government to freeze out any contracts with Fujitsu altogether.
Lord Arbuthnot and Baron Falconer are also now leading a petition for Fujitsu to compensate victims while calling for a full statutory public inquiry “without the restrictions and limitations of the current one”. In a column penned for The Sunday Times, the peers wrote: “The inquiry needs to examine in detail the role of Fujitsu, which provided and managed the faulty software. Was Fujitsu completely unaware of the devastating effect of its actions? Should it not contribute to the compensation claims of hundreds of sub-postmasters?"
A Fujitsu spokesperson told the Mirror: "The current Post Office Horizon IT statutory Inquiry is examining complex events stretching back over 20 years to understand who knew what, when, and what they did with that knowledge. The Inquiry has reinforced the devastating impact on postmasters' lives and that of their families, and Fujitsu has apologised for its role in their suffering. Fujitsu is fully committed to supporting the Inquiry in order to understand what happened and to learn from it. Out of respect for the Inquiry process, it would be inappropriate for Fujitsu to comment further at this time."
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Sir Ed Davey
Davey has stated that he was 'clearly misled' (Getty Images)Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey held the position of postal affairs minister from 2010 to 2012 and has previously come under scrutiny for his apparent failure to act. Former sub-postmaster Alan Bates, who led the fight for justice, has stated that Davey refused to meet with him to discuss the campaign when approached in 2010, stating that he didn't 'believe a meeting would serve any useful purpose'.
In a letter addressed to Bates, as reported by BBC News, Davey stated that the government and the Post Office had an 'arms length relationship', and so the organisation had 'the commercial freedom to run its business operations without interference'. He continued: "The integrity of the Post Office Horizon system is an operational and contractual matter for POL [Post Office Ltd], whilst I do appreciate your concerns... I do not believe a meeting would serve any useful purpose."
Davey did meet with Bates in October 2010 and says he was the first postal affairs minister to do so since campaigners began pushing for a discussion back in 2003. During a recent interview with Times Radio, Davey expressed regrets about not doing more to help, claiming: "I feel that I was deeply misled by Post Office executives… they didn't come clean. There were definitely attempts to stop me from meeting [campaigners]. We were clearly misled. I think ministers from all political parties were misled."
A Liberal Democrat spokesperson told the Mirror: "Ed has said that he wishes he knew then what we all know now - that the Post Office was lying to victims, him and other ministers on an industrial scale. This was a conspiracy on a grand scale perpetrated against hundreds of postmasters, and ministers across the political spectrum for two decades. His focus now is on getting justice and compensation as quickly as possible to all those affected."
Adam Crozier
Crozier went on to work for ITV (PA)Former Saatchi & Saatchi boss Adam Crozier was appointed Royal Mail chief executive back in 2003, with a focus on modernising the company. It was during Crozier's seven-year tenure that the Post Office began hitting back in defence over concerns about the reliability of the Horizon system.
Former sub-postmaster Chris Trousdale, who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after being convicted for accounting irregularities at his Yorkshire post office, believes Crozier has questions to answer. Speaking during the public enquiry, Trousdale said: "When I was prosecuted, Adam Crozier was the chief executive. I think he should be here answering questions, as well as all the other heads of the Post Office. I don't think there is anyone who should be allowed to get away with this."
Trousdale, whose conviction has since been overturned, continued: "Bosses were paid bonuses based on performance. Victims' money [paid to balance shortfalls] in my opinion was going into the pockets of those that had persecuted them." After Royal Mail in 2010, Crozier went on to become chief executive of ITV as well as a director of ITV Studios - a fact noted by a number of those who wondered why he didn't appear as a character in the recent ITV drama.
An ITV spokesperson previously told the Mirror: "Mr Bates vs The Post Office tells the story of the Post Office scandal from the perspective of a select group of former subpostmasters who formed the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, led by Alan Bates. Alan's campaign for justice only began to make headway when Paula Vennells was promoted to Chief Executive, so that's the relationship we dramatise."
The Times reports that friends of Crozier recently stated that he stands ready to help with the ongoing inquiry if requested to do so.
Alice Perkins
Former chairwoman Alice Perkins has previously apologised for the 'deep distress' caused by the scandalFormer civil servant Alice Perkins, who is married to Labour politician Jack Straw, earned £100,000 a year as Post Office chairwoman between the years 2011 and 2015, a period when 120 sub-postmasters were prosecuted. By this point, MPs were starting to ask questions about the Horizon scandal, and, in 2012, Perkins and group network director Vennells held a meeting with the MPs James Arbuthnot and Oliver Letwin to discuss their concerns.
During the discussion, they promised to be 'open and transparent' over the controversy, while on a separate occasion, they assured MPs that Horizon had since been updated and had 'full support' of the National Federation Of SubPostmasters. As reported by Private Eye, however, a judge later said that MPs 'were entitled to expect accurate information but 'did not receive it' stating that the promise of transparency 'was not accurate'. In 2021, Perkins apologised for the 'deep distress' caused by the scandal.
Tim Parker
Private equity tycoon Tim Parker and Paula Vennells (PA)A private equity tycoon and former leader of high street shoe company Clarks, Tim Parker joined the Post Office as chairman in 2015, and supported the executive board as they faced Post Office managers in the civil courts.
Mr Parker announced he would be stepping down from his position in September 2022, mere days before the public enquiry began, Two years earlier, in October 2020, he acknowledged there had been 'historical failings'. As previously reported by The Guardian, Mr Parker said: "I am sincerely sorry on behalf of the Post Office for historical failings which seriously affected some postmasters. Post Office is resetting its relationship with postmasters with reforms that prevent such past events ever happening again. All postmasters entitled to claim civil compensation because of their convictions being overturned [should be] recompensed as quickly as possible."
Post Office scandal victim Damian Owen, whose conviction was overturned in 2021, told the enquiry that he received an apology from Parker, but described it as 'the most feeble apology I have ever received from anyone in my life', remarking that the letter told those affected to 'please feel free to contact me', despite giving no contact details.
Dame Moya Greene
Greene earned £12 million during her time at the Post Office (PA)Dame Moya Greene was chief executive at the Post Office from 2010 to 2018, taking up the post a year after former sub-postmasters told their stories to Computer Weekly. In 2011, external auditors warned Greene that they had identified weaknesses in the Horizon system they believed could 'lead to... unauthorised or erroneous transactions'.
However, Greene accepted assurances from Post Office bosses that the cases were being handled correctly, as per the Mail Online. Canadian-born Greene, who earned £12 million over the course of her tenure, was named Sunday Times Business Person of the Year in 2014. At the time of writing, she has yet to address the scandal publicly.
Alan Cook
Cook previously described Horison as 'robust and fit for purpose' (Daily Mirror)Alan Cook worked as Post Office managing director between the years 2006 to 2010, a period during which 161 sub-postmasters were prosecuted and 57 imprisoned. In a letter addressed to MP Brooks Newmark, dated October 13, 2009, Cook stated in good faith that Horizon had been 'very robust since its introduction some ten years ago', adding that 'all new software releases are also subject to rigorous testing+'.
He continued: "We do take the concerns of sub-postmasters extremely seriously and we do thoroughly investigate matters when they are raised with us but there has never been any evidence found that shows that the Horizon system has caused accounting errors. [...] I am satisfied that there is no evidence to doubt the integrity of the Horizon system and that it is robust and fit for purpose."
Cook went on to chair Highways England as well as the mutual insurer LV. In 2021, an LV spokesperson said: "While it would not be appropriate for LV to comment on Post Office matters relating to Alan Cook's tenure with them, I can assure you that he has deep sympathy for those postmasters wrongly prosecuted. Furthermore, he is supportive of the recently announced Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry as it seeks to provide critical answers to everyone affected."
David Smith
Former Parcelforce managing director David Smith took up the same position in 2010, at around the same time that the Horizon scandal started making headlines. Although Smith commissioned an internal report into Horizon, the public inquiry found that he asked report author Rob Ismay, former head of product and branch accounting, to just give 'positive reasons to be assured about Horizon'
When asked by Jason Beer KC whether he'd been instructed to 'present one side of the coin', Ismay agreed that this was indeed accurate.
Angela van den Bogerd
One former sub-postmistress accused Van den Bogerd of bullying (media wales)Angela van den Bogerd, who was played by former Coronation Street star Katherine Kelly in Mr Bates, was appointed as business improvement officer at Royal Mail, having previously worked various roles over her many years with the organisation, including head of partnerships.
As previously reported by Private Eye, Van den Bogerd had been fielding complaints about Horizon since 2010 and had sat on a group working to address the scandal since 2014. Her wide-reaching experience made her an important figure during the trial, but her testimony did attract criticism from Rt Hon Justice Fraser, who told the court: "Van den Bogerd did not give me frank evidence, and sought to obfuscate matters, and mislead me."
After leaving the Post Office in 2020, Van den Bogerd was hired as head of people by the Football Association of Wales, however, she left in 2021 amid criticism over the Post Office scandal.
Michael Keegan
Keegan has denied having any operational involvement as chief executive tenure at FujitsuFrom 2014 to 2018, Michael Keegan, who is married to education secretary Gillian Keegan, worked as chief executive and chairman for the UK operative branch of Fujitsu, the tech company behind Horizon. Keegan has denied having any operational involvement during his chief executive tenure and claims the only decision he made concerning Horizon was to cancel a tender in order to provide the Post Office with a new version of the computer system. When he took up his subsequent role as chairman, Keegan has stated that he had no line management duties.
As reported by the Mail Online, Keegan has also said that he only ever had one conversation with former boss Vennells, during which the scandal wasn't discussed.
A Post Office spokesperson said: "We fully share the aims of the current Public Inquiry, set up to establish what went wrong in the past and the accountability for it. We are acutely aware of the human cost of the scandal and are doing all we can to right the wrongs of the past, as far as that is possible. Both Post Office and Government are committed to providing full, fair and final compensation for the people affected. To date, offers of compensation totalling more than £138 million have been made to around 2,700 Postmasters, the majority of which have been agreed and paid. Interim payments continue to be made in cases which have not yet been resolved."
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