Former Post Office Boss Accused of Knowing About IT Glitches

Sabah Meddings, Bloomberg News

Paula Vennells arrives to give evidence at the Post Office Horizon IT public inquiry in London, on May 22. , Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The former heads of Britain’s Post Office and Royal Mail exchanged a series of tense text messages earlier this year as public outrage spread over the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of workers.

Ex-Royal Mail CEO Moya Greene accused Paula Vennells of being aware of glitches in the Post Office’s IT system that led to the scandal. Vennells has denied knowing about widespread problems with the computer system during her time in charge of the Post Office.

“I think you knew,” wrote Greene, in messages that were revealed during a public inquiry Wednesday.

“I asked you twice. I suggested you get an independent review reporting to you. I was afraid you were being lied to. You said system had already been reviewed multiple times. How could you not have known?”

Vennells replied to Greene: “No Moya, that isn’t the case.”

The Post Office was owned by Royal Mail until 2012 when it was split off as part of Royal Mail’s privatization. Hundreds of people who ran local branches of the Post Office were wrongfully accused of stealing from the tills, due to historic problems with the IT system provided by Fujitsu Ltd.

Some were jailed and the scandal is now widely considered the biggest miscarriage of justice in the country’s legal history.

The UK government is holding an inquiry into the scandal, with Vennells, who was CEO of the government-owned Post Office from 2012 to 2019, giving evidence over three days. She led the organization as it fought so-called subpostmasters in Britain’s High Court and rejected accusations that the IT system, known as Horizon, was riddled with bugs.

Greene, a Canadian who ran Royal Mail from 2010 to 2018, wrote to tell Vennells that she could no longer support her. “I have supported you all these years to my own detriment. I can’t support you now after what I’ve learned.”

Earlier in the hearing, Vennells apologized to subpostmasters, but denied any conspiracy. “My deep sorrow in this is that I think that individuals, myself included, made mistakes, they didn’t see things and hear things.”

She broke down in tears on several occasions during her first day giving evidence, including when she admitted what she told Members of Parliament in 2012 — that the Post Office was successful in all its prosecutions — was not true.

Vennells also said she was not aware the Post Office conducted its own private prosecutions until 2012, five years after joining the company.

(Updates with additional detail from inquiry.)