Archives :
2024
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More dispatches from the Post Office bunker: the PR guy goes Tonto
On 1 Dec 2014 I was in Cornwall, where Tim Robinson, Jane Goddard, Joe Cooper and I had been filming with former Subpostmaster Sue Knight. After 32 years service Sue had been sacked and prosecuted by the Post Office for false accounting. Although the prosecution had been dropped, Sue’s life was falling apart. She had…
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The taxi for Paula Vennells which never quite came
A powerpoint slide deck was the most newsworthy element to leap out of former Post Office chair Alice Perkins’ second day of evidence at the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry today. Thanks to an anonymous nine-page presentation, we know that in February 2014 the government was tempted to sack Post Office CEO Paula Vennells because…
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Perkins in Wonderland: Day 1
The Post Office scandal did not happen, or get covered up because of a single Machiavellian baddie. It happened because a bunch of serially incompetent people spent oodles of other people’s cash groping their way around a crisis without the competence or moral backbone to do the right thing. Alice Perkins, Chair of the Post…
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Perkins Preview: what secrets will Lady Humphrey reveal?
Alice Perkins was Chairman of the Post Office for four years between 2011 and 2015. She got the job after a career spent in the civil service. One of the people who ostensibly worked for her during that period told me Perkins was “patronising… wooden and inarticulate”, complaining she “couldn’t connect with people at all……
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Grey Day gives little away
Chris Day, former Post Office Chief Financial Office had all the hallmarks of a low-wattage witness. He met that expectation square on. I think I was the only journalist present today. More fool me. Taken at snail’s pace through multiple documents we’ve seen before, Day was unable to see the real risks in the Horizon…
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Alan Bates threatens legal action against the government
Alan Bates has threatened “possible legal action” against the government for their perceived foot-dragging over financial redress for 555 Subpostmasters who joined him in the Bates v Post Office group litigation order (GLO) High Court case. Most of the 555 qualify for the government’s special GLO compensation scheme*, announced in 2022 and initially designed to…
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Paula Vennells and Mark Davies: Led by the (brown) nose
In his witness statement to the public inquiry, former Post Office Director of Communications Mark Davies claimed Paula Vennells acted with “integrity and care” when dealing with the issues raised by campaigning Subpostmasters. In the same statement he states Vennells is a woman of “deep integrity” who is “guided by deeply held personal values.” On…
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Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act becomes law
Congratulations to those Subpostmasters who no longer have convictions blighting their lives. A huge cohort of people now have access to a minimum of £600k each by way of compensation. Two important groups are currently excluded. 1) Scottish Subpostmasters. Thanks to foot-dragging by the Scottish authorities, Scottish Subpostmasters are not (yet) having their convictions quashed.…
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Vennells Day 2: Dispatches from the Bunker
In February 2019, the Post Office was in the middle of its disastrous Bates v Post Office group litigation. The Common Issues trial had finished and the Horizon Issues trial was due to begin on 11 March. The Common Issues judgment had yet to land. The Post Office was jumpy. Towards the end of former…
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Vennells Day 2: Cover-up finally acknowledged
During her evidence to the Inquiry today Paula Vennells finally admitted there was cover-up at the Post Office on her watch. Counsel to the Inquiry Jason Beer took her to a letter dated 12 July 2013. It was from the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the statutory body which investigates potential miscarriages of justice in…