Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells arrives to give evidence to the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry at Aldwych House in central London, Wednesday May 22, 2024. Vennells, who earlier this year gave back her Commander of the Order of the British Empire title that she received in 2019, admitted that she had “made mistakes” but denied there was a conspiracy to cover up the scandal.
The Post Office maintained that Horizon, which was made by the Japanese company Fujitsu, was reliable and accused branch managers of dishonesty. Vennells, who was chief executive from 2012 to 2019, a period that included the last few years of the scandal, had for years insisted that the system was “robust” despite the hundreds of workers who said they had done nothing wrong.
The inquiry’s chief counsel, Jason Beer, pondered whether Vennells was perhaps the “unluckiest CEO in the United Kingdom.” Questioned on whether she put the needs of the business over the suffering of subpostmasters, Vennells admitted there “will be many examples of where that is clearly the case.”