Paula Vennels – Background
Worked 12 years in total for Post Office
Begin January 2007
Made CEO October 2010
Left CEO April 2019 more than 8 year CEO
Notice: there are 3 other web pages about the inquiry of the Post Office Boss Paula Vennells:
A Broken Society: The Impact on Morality, Justice, and Ethics
Inquiry date Paula Vennels
This brings to mind “leave no stone unturned,” meaning that you look everywhere, even under every figurative “stone.”
“keep looking for something carefully”, particularly when that something is well-hidden. It might also have overtones of discovering searching for something scandalous or incriminating.
Here is a quote from a journalist about digging up secrets:
“I was never fired or threatened with dismissal if I kept looking under rocks.”
This type of usage of “looking under rocks” often shows up paired with “shine a light” (i.e. turn public scrutiny on something). The combination is very common in reporting on corruption scandals.
You have given in 750 pages a craven self-serving account haven’t you?
Five questions for ex-Post Office boss Paula Vennells
1 When did she know accounts could be accessed remotely?
2 Did she lie to Parliament in 2015?
3 Why didn’t she do more to find out what was going on?
4 Why did she allow the Post Office to fight sub-postmasters in court?
5 Was anyone pulling her strings?
Je hebt in 750 pagina’s een lafhartig egoïstisch verslag gegeven, nietwaar?
Sobbing Paula Vennells accused of talking ‘absolute rubbish’
24 mei 2024
Paula Vennells becomes emotional during Post Office Inquiry questioning
Paula Vennells, under questioning from Sam Stein KC, acting on behalf of a number of subpostmasters, insisted she “loved” the Post Office before growing visibly upset and pausing to compose herself.
Ex-Post Office CEO cries during grilling at Horizon scandal inquiry
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On the final day of Paula Vennells’ evidence to the Post Office Inquiry, representatives for victims of the Horizon Scandal cornered the former CEO over her knowledge and involvement in the cover-up.
Educational
1 ‘I let these people down’: Paula Vennells sobs as she declares love for the Post Office
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24 mei 2024
Paula Vennells sobbed as she declared her “love” for the Post Office during intense questioning from lawyers representing subpostmasters at the Horizon IT inquiry.
The former Post Office chief executive was forced to compose herself after she was accused of being someone who “couldn’t be bothered” to ask the right questions.
Sam Stein KC said Ms Vennells had “failed” and asked: “Looking under that rock, you’re going to find a problem that’s going to devastate the Post Office, ruin it, you couldn’t let that happen could you Ms Vennells?”
Beginning her response, Ms Vennells said: “I loved the Post Office. I gave..”, before her voice broke and she began to cry.
After composing herself, she continued: “I worked as hard as I possibly could to deliver the best Post Office for the UK,” adding later: “I let these people down. I am very aware of that.”
Ms Vennells held the top role between 2012 and 2019. She has already given evidence for two days.
The scandal has seen more than 900 subpostmasters wrongfully prosecuted after bugs were incorrectly recorded on their branch accounts.
2 Alan Bates reacts to Paula Vennell’s ‘rehearsed’ testimony | LBC
Educational
3 Paula Venells’ Post Office testimony: ‘astonishing announcement of her ignorance’
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22 mei 2024
“She was either telling the truth but displaying an incompetence of gargantuan scale, or she was not telling the truth.”
Pauls Vennells’ testimony for the Post Office inquiry was an “astonishing announcement of her ignorance,” says Lord Arbuthnot.
4 Post Office Inquiry: Audience moan as Paula Vennells can’t recall key details | ITV News
24 mei 2024
As former Post Office boss Paula Vennells was questioned for a second day at the UK inquiry, members of the audience groaned in frustration as she failed to recall some key details.
ITV News Reporter Ellie Pitt spoke to one former sub-postmaster who was imprisoned while pregnant, who heard how the Post Office advised that including her in a case review “would be a rag to a bull”.
Educational: IMPORTANT
“She was either telling the truth but displaying an incompetence of gargantuan scale, or she was not telling the truth.”
Pauls Vennells’ testimony for the Post Office inquiry was an “astonishing announcement of her ignorance,” says Lord Arbuthnot.
5 Post Office scandal: former CEO admits evidence was false
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22 mei 2024
Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells has begun giving evidence at the Horizon inquiry.
The ex-CEO broke down in tears four times during her testimony.
Almost a thousand subpostmasters were wrongly prosecuted and many believe Ms Vennells was at the heart of an orchestrated cover-up.
But much of her defence today focused around shifting blame, and in her words, being too trusting.
6 Post Office denied review to prevent ‘front page news’
23 mei 2024
Ex-Post Office boss Paula Vennells followed a “grossly improper” suggestion to not review all subpostmaster prosecutions after her communications chief said it would end up “front page news”, the Horizon IT inquiry has heard.
The probe was shown an email exchange between Ms Vennells and then director of communications Mark Davies in July 2013 in which she said she would “take your steer” after he said looking at all past cases would be “in media terms… very high profile”.
Educational; IMPORTANT
7 EX-Post Office Boss Paula Vennells Faces the Horizon IT Inquiry
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22 mei 2024
Ex-Post Office boss Paula Vennells will appear at the Post Office Inquiry today. Last month the inquiry heard how Vennells ignored calls from the organisation’s top management team to halt sub-postmaster prosecutions.
Former postmistress Jo Hamilton will be attending the inquiry, speaking on Paula Vennells’ appearance at the inquiry, Jo said: ‘If there are going to be criminal charges put to her, she may as well tell the truth but I don’t think she will when you have a CEO cloak on you can be as brave as you like, but without that, I don’t see her being brave and truthful at all.’
Broadcast on 22/05/24
8 Paula Vennells’ cries at Post Office inquiry | Jeremy Vine
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23 mei 2024
Former Post office boss Paula Vennells gave her side of the story at the Post Office Inquiry yesterday, breaking down in tears and saying she was unaware of what was going on.
9 Paula Vennells failed to disclose 16 cases that undermined Horizon, Post Office inquiry heard
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18 mei 2011
Girl asks pedestrians if she’ll watch over a doghouse with a Yorkie dog inside. But this magic doghouse is a lot like one of those clown cars – it holds a lot more puppies than it looks like it would. Yorkshire terrier pups keep multiplying uncontrollably and running rather adorably out of the house, while prank victims watch in disbelief.
A presentation of JustForLaughsTV, the official Just For Laughs Gags YouTube channel. Home of the funniest, greatest, most amazing, most hilarious, win filled, comedy galore, hidden camera pranks in the world!
10 Post Office: Paula Vennells only wanted to pay sub-postmasters ‘token’ compensation, inquiry hears
26 apr 2024
Paula Vennells only wanted to pay wrongly convicted sub-postmasters “token” compensation payments.
Minutes from a February 2014 meeting shown to the inquiry show the then Post Office chief executive complaining that a planned mediation scheme was projected to potentially pay out a total of £100 million.
“It was noted by PV [Paula Vennells] that the projected level of claims was currently c. £100[million], in response to which SS [Second Sight, a forensic accounting firm involved in auditing Horizon] noted that their back of the envelope calculation was of the order of £25 to £50m,” the minutes read.
“PV observed that this was a long way from the figures that were in mind when the scheme was established, which were much smaller, and more of the nature of a ‘token’ with an apology.”
The meeting was attended by Ms Vennells, Chris Aujard, the Post Office’s general counsel respectively, and Ron Warmington and Ian Henderson from Second Sight.
Educational
11 Post Office Inquiry: Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells to give evidence
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22 mei 2024
Paula Vennells, the former Group Chief Executive Officer of Post Office Ltd, is set to give evidence on Wednesday.
Ms Vennells was at the helm of the government-owned body during the key Horizon operating years of 2012 to 2019.
Sky’s business correspondent Adele Robinson has been following the story and has this report.
12 Post Office Inquiry: Vennells accused of talking ‘nonsense’
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24 mei 2024
The former Post Office Chief Executive has been quizzed by lawyers representing former sub-postmasters, on the final day of her evidence to the Horizon IT Inquiry.
She was accused of talking nonsense and being the architect of her own downfall as Sky’s business correspondent Adele Robinson reports.
Educational: IMPORTANT
You have given in 750 pages a craven self-serving account haven’t you?
13 Boos and groans as Paula Vennells ends three day grilling by sub-postmasters’ lawyers | ITV News
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24 mei 2024
Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells was booed by subpostmasters, grilled by lawyers and pushed to tears multiple times during her three days’ evidence to the Horizon IT Inquiry.
The ordained priest entered the witness box at Aldwych House in central London to face what one former subpostmistress described as a room of people with “eyes full of hatred”.
14 Secret tape reveals Paula Vennells was told of faulty Horizon software | ITV News
28 mrt 2024
A secret audio recording obtained by ITV News has revealed Post Office boss Paula Vennells was told directly about problems with the Horizon system and warned not to cover them up.
In a meeting with independent investigators from Second Sight on July 2, 2013, Ms Vennells was made aware of allegations that sub-postmaster branch accounts could be accessed remotely.
This is something the Post Office had denied for years.
Educational: IMPORTANT
There are more denials and more tears today from Paula Vennells, the former Post Office Boss, giving evidence at the Horizon inquiry for the third and final day. For the wronged subpostmasters, though, her raw emotions paled into insignificance. They said that Miss Vennells and the other Post Office executives would never cry as much as the victims and their families. But Miss Vennells did make an admission of her own failings: ‘I let these people down,’ she said. The subpostmasters have waited years to see the former Post Office boss answer their questions. Will today be your toughest day, Paula? Today, that moment came as lawyers acting on their behalf got a turn to challenge Paula Vennells. ‘There were so many forks in the road, but you always took the wrong path. You preach compassion, but you don’t practice it. You have no one to blame but yourself. You still continue to live in a cloud of denial, and it persists even today because you have given in 750-odd pages a craven, self-serving account, haven’t you?
You said, ‘I didn’t know, nobody told me, I can’t remember, I wasn’t shown this, I relied on the lawyers.’
I have tried to do this to the very best of my ability. I have taken, as I hope the inquiry has seen, all of the questions I’ve been asked. I have asked, I have answered them honestly, no matter how difficult, embarrassing, or wrong I was at the time. I don’t believe I could have worked harder for this.
You failed to get into this on your account, you failed to ask the right questions, you couldn’t be bothered, could you? I loved the Post Office. I gave it everything… (crying) I worked as hard as I possibly could to deliver the best Post Office for the UK. What I failed to do is I did not recognize the imbalance of power between the institution and the individual, and I let these people down.
Er zijn vandaag meer ontkenningen en meer tranen van Paula Vennells, de voormalige baas van de Post Office, die voor de derde en laatste dag getuigt bij het Horizon-onderzoek. Voor de onrecht aangedane postmeesters verbleekten haar rauwe emoties echter in het niets. Ze zeiden dat mevrouw Vennells en de andere leidinggevenden van de Post Office nooit zoveel zouden huilen als de slachtoffers en hun families. Maar mevrouw Vennells deed wel een bekentenis over haar eigen tekortkomingen: ‘Ik heb deze mensen in de steek gelaten,’ zei ze. De postmeesters hebben jaren gewacht om de voormalige baas van de Post Office hun vragen te zien beantwoorden. Zou vandaag jouw zwaarste dag zijn, Paula? Vandaag kwam dat moment, toen advocaten die namens hen optraden de kans kregen om Paula Vennells uit te dagen. ‘Er waren zoveel splitsingen op de weg, maar je nam altijd het verkeerde pad. Je predikt compassie, maar je oefent het niet uit. Je hebt niemand anders de schuld te geven dan jezelf. Je blijft nog steeds in een wolk van ontkenning leven, en dat houdt zelfs vandaag nog aan omdat je in 750-achtige pagina’s een lafhartig, egoïstisch verslag hebt gegeven, nietwaar?
Je zei: ‘Ik wist het niet, niemand heeft het me verteld, ik kan het me niet herinneren, dit is me niet getoond, ik vertrouwde op de advocaten.’
Ik heb geprobeerd dit naar mijn beste vermogen te doen. Zoals ik hoop dat de commissie heeft gezien, heb ik alle vragen die jij hebt gesteld serieus genomen. Ik heb ze eerlijk beantwoord, hoe moeilijk, gênant of fout ik ook was op dat moment. Ik geloof niet dat ik harder had kunnen werken voor dit.
Jij hebt nagelaten hier dieper op in te gaan, jij hebt niet de juiste vragen gesteld, jij had er geen zin in, toch? Ik hield van de Post Office. Ik gaf alles… (huilend)… Ik heb zo hard mogelijk gewerkt om de beste Post Office voor het VK te leveren. Wat ik niet heb gedaan, is erkennen dat er een onbalans van macht was tussen de instelling en het individu, en ik heb deze mensen in de steek gelaten.
15 Cute Puppies Galore!
18 mei 2011
Girl asks pedestrians if she’ll watch over a doghouse with a Yorkie dog inside. But this magic doghouse is a lot like one of those clown cars – it holds a lot more puppies than it looks like it would. Yorkshire terrier pups keep multiplying uncontrollably and running rather adorably out of the house, while prank victims watch in disbelief.
A presentation of JustForLaughsTV, the official Just For Laughs Gags YouTube channel. Home of the funniest, greatest, most amazing, most hilarious, win filled, comedy galore, hidden camera pranks in the world!