Dozens of “damning” tapes are thought to have been uncovered by a public inquiry into the Post Office scandal, which includes shocking conversations between senior bosses.
The former boss of the Post Office faces calls to hand back her CBE after 230 former postmasters and postmistresses jailed in one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history.
Paula Vennells – who was managing director and then chief executive between 2010 and 2019 – has been accused of covering up the scandal by not investigating faults in the Horizon system.
As a result, innocent people were wrongly branded a thief over apparent account shortfalls created by the faulty computer system.
Now, a series of covert recordings of senior Post Office staff, including Vennells, are to be exposed, according to reports.
It is expected that an estimated 80 tapes will be sent to those involved – including postmasters – in due course.
“They’re conversations with Post Office top brass including Paula Vennells. It’s very damning,” a source told The Times.
According to the public inquiry, Vennells sent a company-wide “Horizon defence piece” as early as 2009 to defend the computer system.
However, reports between 2010 and 2013 suggested the system had weaknesses and advice from a KC in 2013 found it was likely a senior IT expert had misled criminal trials when he failed to disclose his knowledge of bugs.
More to follow…
