Former Post Office CEO quits boardroom after subpostmasters court ruling
26 April 2021, 07:59 | Updated: 26 April 2021, 09:02
Former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells has quit as a non-executive director of high street chains Morrisons and Dunelm in the wake of the subpostmasters scandal.
She has also stepped down from her role as a Church of England minister after it was confirmed on Friday that dozens of former Post Office staff were subject to a shocking miscarriage of justice due to the company's failures.
Hundreds of subpostmasters were prosecuted for theft, fraud and false accounting because of the Post Office's defective Horizon accounting system, which had "bugs, defects and errors" from the very outset.
Ms Vennells, who was Post Office chief executive from 2012 to 2019, said she was "truly sorry" and would be stepping back from public and private duties.
READ MORE: Dozens of subpostmaster convictions overturned in landmark ruling
In a statement, she said: "I am truly sorry for the suffering caused to the 39 subpostmasters as a result of their convictions which were overturned last week.
"It is obvious that my involvement with the Post Office has become a distraction from the good work undertaken in the Diocese of St Albans and in the parishes I serve.
"I have therefore stepped back with immediate effect from regular parish ministry, and intend to focus fully on working with the ongoing Government inquiry to ensure the affected subpostmasters and wider public get the answers they deserve."
Post Office scandal 'even worse than people realise' lawyer explains
In updates to the London Stock Exchange, both Dunelm and Morrisons said she would be leaving the roles, which include responsibilities for setting executive pay and upholding corporate responsibility.
Dunelm chairman Andy Harrison said: "We respect Paula's decision to step down from the board and I would like to thank her for the positive contribution she has made to the business since her appointment in September 2019."
She took home £89,000 in fees from Morrisons and £30,000 from Dunelm in the past year, according to the latest published annual accounts.
Morrisons chairman Andrew Higginson said: "Paula has been an insightful, effective and hardworking non-executive director, and, on behalf of the board, I want to thank her for her significant contribution over the last five years."
EXPLAINED: Why were dozens of subpostmasters wrongly convicted of theft?
The Bishop of St Albans, the son of a former subpostmaster, said it is "right" that she step back from church duties and expressed "distress at the miscarriage of justice" done to the group.
"They and their families are in my thoughts and prayers," he said, "I am glad that these and earlier appeals have overturned convictions that have been found to be unjust."
At the court ruling on Friday, Lord Justice Holroyde said the Post Office "effectively steamrolled over any subpostmaster who sought to challenge its accuracy".
After the ruling was delivered at the Court of Appeal in London, former subpostmasters whose convictions were overturned called for a public inquiry into the scandal which "destroyed" people's lives.
Post Office chief executive Nick Read said: "The quashing of historical convictions is a vital milestone in fully and properly addressing the past as I work to put right these wrongs as swiftly as possible, and there must be compensation that reflects what has happened."
The former CEO of the Post Office should be stripped of her CBE over the Horizon scandal, a trade union said, after dozens of subpostmasters had their convictions overturned at the Court of Appeal.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) also called for Ms Vennells to be stripped of her CBE for "services to the Post Office" awarded in 2019.
CWU national officer for postmasters, Andy Furey, said: "Our union is demanding that Paula Vennells, the former CEO, be stripped of her CBE - which was awarded to her for services to the Post Office in 2019 - for her part in this scandal.
"We also demand a criminal investigation against those who put loyal, decent workers in this diabolical situation.
"Many senior figures who are complicit in this scandal will now want to run from this situation, but we must not let that happen.
"Heads must roll for the humiliation and misery inflicted on decent, upstanding people who were simply providing much-needed local services and were pillars of their local communities.
"It will be only when justice is done that the suffering of so many can be mended and these decent, loyal postmasters can get real closure."
