Post Office Inquiry live: Paula Vennells email says ‘managing media’ is priority over
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Ex-Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells has been caught out by her own email as she gave evidence at the Horizon scandal inquiry for a second day.
Ms Vennells on Thursday conceded that the view of former director of communications Mark Davies in 2013 that the Post Office should not review historical cases involving the Horizon IT system from “five to 10 years” ago because it would be “on the front page” was a “grossly improper perspective”.
Yet an email shown to the inquiry revealed that she had replied to Mr Davies at the time: “You are right to call this out. And I will take your steer, no issue. There are two objectives, the most urgent being to manage the media. The second is to make sure we do address the concerns of JA [ex-MP James Arbuthnot] and Alan Bates.”
Earlier, Ms Vennells disclosed that there were concerns among her team over the increasing cost of independent forensic accountants Second Sight’s review into Horizon.
It comes a day after Ms Vennells was accused of crying “crocodile tears” by the CWU union, which represents Post Office workers, and also admitted that statements made in her letters to MPs in response to questions about Horizon were wrong.
More than 700 subpostmasters were wrongly prosecuted and handed criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015 as a result of Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon IT system – which made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.
Vennells agrees Post Office should’ve told CCRC of concerns over expert evidence
Paula Vennells agreed that the “right and honest” thing to do in response to a letter from the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) asking for information about the Horizon system would be to tell them of concerns about the reliability of leading Horizon engineer Gareth Jenkins’ evidence.
The Horizon IT Inquiry heard a letter from the CCRC, sent to the then-Post Office chief executive in July 2013, said: “For obvious reasons, we have read the recent media coverage concerning the Post Office Horizon computer system with interest.”
The letter asked for information directly from Post Office, “especially accurate information as to number of criminal convictions that might be impacted by the issue and what action is proposed, or being taken, in that respect”.
Jason Beer KC asked: “The right and honest thing for the Post Office to have done would be to have let the CCRC know, and know promptly, over its concerns about the truthfulness and reliability of the evidence that Gareth Jenkins had given to court wouldn’t it?”
Ms Vennells said: “Yes it would.
Mr Beer went on: “That didn’t happen for years and years did it?”
“I understand that to be the case now,” Ms Vennells replied.
Tara Cobham23 May 2024 13:17
Vennells accused of asking team to ‘dig into’ dead man’s records on first day of testimony
The former Post Office chief was quizzed at on her first day of testimony at the inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal about an email she sent after his suicide attempt suggesting she had heard about “previous mental health and family issues”.
Tara Cobham23 May 2024 13:15
Vennells tells inquiry she was not told leading Horizon engineer was unsafe witness
Paula Vennells said she was not told that leading Horizon engineer Gareth Jenkins was an unsafe witness.
Ms Vennells was informed that there was a problem with some of the expert evidence, given by Mr Jenkins, about bugs on which the Post Office had relied on in prosecutions, including the conviction of Seema Misra, the inquiry heard.
When questioned on whether she asked who this witness was, she said: “I think I was told that it was someone who worked for Fujitsu who was very competent on the system.”
She told the inquiry she did not ask how many cases he gave evidence in.
Questioned on whether she asked what the Post Office was doing as a result of its concern that Mr Jenkins failed to mention in cases knowledge of bugs, Ms Vennells said: “I was told that we were going back looking at or that Cartwright King were going back and looking at cases.
“I understood because that was the obligation that one had to do was that any case that he had given evidence in needed to be given this evidence around these two bugs even if it didn’t affect those cases.”
She denied being told he was an unsafe witness.
Tara Cobham23 May 2024 13:00
Vennells didn’t connect criticism of Horizon with expert evidence issues
Counsel to the inquiry Jason Beer KC asked Paula Vennells: “Did you ever connect the long running criticism with Horizon’s integrity that had been forced upon the Post Office by subpostmasters for years and years with being informed that there was a problem with the expert evidence on which the Post Office had relied about bugs?”
Ms Vennells said: “I don’t think I made that connection because it was very specific.”
She said she was told the two bugs were related to Horizon Online before adding: “And the bugs had been fixed and the postmasters had not lost any money as a result of that.
“There is even documentation that refers to them as a red herring.”
The former chief executive added that the fact that former Post Office general counsel Susan Crichton was going through a review into the flagged issue “seemed to be reassuring rather than concerning”.
Tara Cobham23…
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2024-05-23 12:27:30