When the Rev Paula Vennells stepped down as chief executive of the Post Office in February 2019, she walked away nearly 5m richer. Post Office could go bust!

[POSTMAN]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... a-vennells

Post Office’s aggressive pursuit of staff casts shadow over ex-boss’s tenure
Paula Vennells was hailed for her turnaround of the business, but it now looks less like a success story

When the Rev Paula Vennells stepped down as chief executive of the Post Office in February 2019, she walked away nearly £5m richer.

As Vennells made for the exit, hundreds of loyal employees were still falsely branded thieves by the business that many of them had given their lives to.

Under the seven-year leadership of Vennells, an Anglican minister, the Post Office had relentlessly pursued subpostmasters and subpostmistresses for alleged offences such as theft and false accounting.

The missing money turned out to be the result of nothing of the sort, and instead owed to a glitch in the company’s IT system, named Horizon.

More than 900 employees were prosecuted, many of them were wrongfully convicted and their reputations in local communities were destroyed. Some died before their name could be cleared. Those that were left had a wearying legal fight on their hands against a deep-pocketed employer.

The outlook for Vennells, a minister at the Church of St Owen near Bedford, in the diocese of St Albans, was rather brighter. She had turned the Post Office from a basket case, making annual losses of £120m, into a modern and profitable business – an impressive turnaround achieved inside seven years. She was awarded a CBE for “services to the Post Office and to charity”.


Shorty after her departure she took up a new post as chair of Imperial College Healthcare NHS trust, which runs several London hospitals. She was also appointed as a non-executive director at the Cabinet Office, joined the board of furniture firm Dunelm, and retained her seat in the boardroom at the supermarket chain Morrisons. Her roles with the NHS, Dunelm and Morrisons, the latter two part-time, were worth £174,000 a year.

At the end of 2019, 10 months after Vennells’ exit, 555 Post Office workers reached a settlement with the company, which admitted it had “got things wrong”. For the subpostmasters, the £58m settlement cost was worth about £20,000 each.

The Post Office has admitted that the final bill could escalate to more than £300m, a cost that the taxpayer is likely to have to fund, leaving Vennells’ turnaround of the Post Office looking a little less like a financial success story.

One reason that the cost of the scandal has run into the hundreds of millions of pounds is the vigour with which the Post Office continued to pursue its staff, even in the face of mounting evidence that they had done nothing wrong.

Much of that unwavering legal aggression occurred under Vennells’ seven-year tenure. At the high court, Mr Justice Fraser said the company had simply ignored the reality of what had happened, effectively “maintaining that the Earth is flat”.

The Conservative peer James Arbuthnot described the Post Office’s actions under Vennells’ tenure as “cruel and incompetent”.

Yet it was not until Friday, more than two decades after the prosecutions first began, that dozens of staff finally had their criminal convictions overturned, clearing their names once and for all.

Vennells has since said she is “truly sorry” and has quit her positions with the NHS and the Cabinet Office. She retains her corporate roles with Morrisons and Dunelm. She also remains a member of the Church of England’s ethical investment advisory group.

[POSTMAN]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/city-new ... t-23807745

Fears Post Office may go bust as IT scandal sees wrongly accused postmasters sue

The PO announced last week it had made a £307million loss and faced multi-million pound payouts to branch managers who were wrongly sacked and prosecuted after money appeared to go missing from accounts

The Post Office faces a fight for survival as an IT scandal could cost it an estimated £1billion.

Thousands of sub-postmasters are expected to claim compensation payouts after being wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting.

The state-owned PO announced last week it had made a £307million loss and faced multi-million pound payouts to branch managers who were sacked and prosecuted after money appeared to go missing from accounts.

PO bosses were told that Horizon computer terminals may be to blame – but pursued prosecutions anyway.

The IT blunders left some postmasters in jail. An independent inquiry is due to start quizzing bosses, including ex-chief executive Paula Vennells, in May. She was in charge of the PO at the time of the scandal.

The 11,500-branch PO fell into the red after paying a £58m settlement with 557 postmasters and setting aside £153m in case another 2,400 sue. The Government has promised to help out.

But the PO’s long-delayed annual accounts to the end of March 2020 make it clear its future as a going concern is far from certain. They warn of the potential cost of claims that exceed sums guaranteed by the Government – and of civil claims if convictions are overturned.

The alert came as 42 former sub-postmasters took their battle to the Court of Appeal last week.

Dozens more appeals may follow. Alan Bates, of the Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance, said: “At the end of the day when the final cost of everything involved is accounted for, it could easily have cost a billion pounds.”

In his foreword to the firm’s accounts, Post Office chief executive Nick Read says that, with government support, it will still be able to provide essential services across the network.

He said: “We have started on the long journey to reset our relationship with postmasters and change our culture.”

An expert on PO finances said the Government would not allow the network to close and that, at worst, the company could borrow money from the City on the basis that, under normal conditions, it usually makes a profit.

A PO spokesman said the company had apologised for “historical failings” and taken action to ensure redress for those affected.

[hans solo]

she and her accomplices should all be getting charged prosecuted and jailed for this
justice must be served
and the wrongly jailed should be suing them as well

[NWpostie]

Chickens have come home to roost.

How can she be a Reverend with such a morally corrupt conduct.

[Woody Guthrie]

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[Ad_bee]

There is a phrase:

"The banality of evil"

Perhaps the Reverend P.Vennells OBE could amuse us with a sermon on the theme.

[POSTMAN]

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What's this then?
I mean I know what it is, but who what where when ect.

[Woody Guthrie]

FB_IMG_1619194615770.jpg

What's this then?
I mean I know what it is, but who what where when ect.

It's on the CWU FB page.
If I were to take a punt I'd say it's Lovejoy's work.

[Dorset Plodder]

Chickens have come home to roost.

How can she be a Reverend with such a morally corrupt conduct.

After the behaviour of RC Priests I think none of us have too high expectations about the morals of the Clergy. I doubt she'll suffer any comeback about this scandal, while many innocent people have had their lives ruined!