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Post Office and handed criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015 during a period that Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon IT system was known to have bugs, some of which made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.
Hundreds of subpostmasters are still awaiting compensation for the damage to their lives and reputations.
Last night in parliament MPs agreed with amendments made in the House of Lords to the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences bill, which will quash hundreds of convictions in England and Wales and Northern Ireland without subpostmasters having to go through the court of appeal. It now only requires royal assent to be implemented.
Post Office, was for paying out “substantial figures”.
In 2011 she set out the a “goal” of hers that all press “should be scoured for negative comment and refuted” in an email she sent. She made the comments after she was notified about a Private Eye article on the Horizon IT system and criticism from subpostmasters.
The inquiry also heard the ex-chief executive followed a “grossly improper” suggestion to not review all subpostmaster prosecutions after her communications chief said it would end up “front page news”.
The public gallery at the inquiry, made up of mainly subpostmasters, groaned loudly after Vennells said she did not remember if she took the “advice of the PR guy” to review past prosecutions. Lead counsel Jason Beer KC put it to Vennells that in her witness statement she said legal advice was being withheld from her, but she appeared to taking legal advice from the heads of PR and of IT.
his report.
Post Office, Paula Vennells, will face a third day of questioning in London today at the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry.
Unlike the previous two days, when she was questioned by lead counsel for the inquiry Jason Beer KC, today she will be quizzed directly by legal teams representing some of the victims of the scandal, which has been described as “the biggest single series of wrongful convictions in British legal history” by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 9.45am, and you will be able to watch it here. The feed has a three minute time delay.
Source: theguardian.com
