Former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells was alleged to have made comments inferring that sub-postmasters were stealing money, according to former Postal Affairs Minister, Jo Swinson. Swinson testified in court that Vennells admitted “some of the people are lovely people, but clearly some of them are actually just at it.” Swinson also accused Vennells of not informing her of the crucial witness Gareth Jenkins’ unreliability in court cases against sub-postmasters.
In 2013, Simon Clarke advised the Post Office that Jenkins was aware of bugs in the Horizon system, which was used to manage sub-postmasters’ accounts, and the IT expert should have disclosed the existence of software bugs to the defence. However, Swinson claimed that Vennells failed to give the issue the necessary attention.
Ms Vennells’ barrister Samantha Leak challenged the former Liberal Democrat leader and pointed out that there was no evidence that Vennells had been shown the Clarke advice. Swinson responded by saying that a CEO would have asked to see it.
Swinson became emotional while providing evidence and expressed her regret for not asking more questions. “I’m sorry. I asked lots of questions but that wasn’t enough,” she said to sub-postmasters present in the court
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