The inquiry into the Post Office Horizon IT scandal has resumed with evidence from a former company secretary, as ex-chief executive Paula Vennells gears up to testify under oath.
Alwen Lyons, who spent 33 years at the Post Office and was awarded an OBE in 2018 for services to the company and to equality and diversity, began her testimony on Tuesday morning. She will be followed on Wednesday by Ms Vennells, who served as Post Office chief executive between 2012 and 2019.
Her testimony will be closely watched by subpostmasters, more than 700 of whom 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.
Prosecutions continued to happen under Ms Vennells’ watch despite retired judge Sir Anthony Hooper – who chaired the mediation scheme for those who believed they had been wrongly prosecuted – repeatedly warning her that they “didn’t make sense”.
Ms Vennells has not yet spoken in detail about her role in the scandal, but previously apologised for the “devastation caused to subpostmasters and their families”.
