This article takes you back to the moment when the Post Office Scandal took place. In this article, we will tell you what the role of the CEO in the Horizon case. Recently, an ITV drama titled “Mr Bates vs The Post Office” left the audience disgusted as it told the harrowing story of the Post Office Scandal. The ITV drama is dubbed as the biggest miscarriage of justice in the country, showing hundreds of postmasters deceivingly accused of fraud and theft. In case, you are scrambling to the web regarding the same, this article has a lot more to serve you. Stick with this page and go through the article till the end. Scroll down the page.
Who Is Paula Vennells?
The postmasters in the community were deceivingly accused of theft and fraud because of a glitch in the computer system. Paula Vennells was the CEO of the Post Office at the time of this incident, from 2012 to 2019. In the ITV drama, the role of Paula Vennells is played by Lia Williams. It is a four-part series that depicts the former CEO making important decisions that altered the entire course of looking into how things became wrong. The errors started to occur in the computing system when a new software called Horizon was installed in the post offices across the country in an attempt to enhance accounting efficiency. The software in question was called “Horizon”, installed in 1999.
Due to the errors in the software, financial discrepancies occurred causing hundreds of innocent postmasters to be wrongly accused of fraud and theft. The postmasters were accused of unaccounted cash that was not even stolen. As per the report, a total of 736 innocent postmasters were accused of stealing money and prosecuted by the Post Office from 2000 to 2014.
Meanwhile, then-CEO of Post Office, Paula Vennells found herself embroiled in a challenge. During her tenure, the Post Office missed the opportunity of a staggering £120 million a year to make a profit. However, Paula defended the faulty software, insisting Horizon was ‘robust’. Eventually, hundreds of postmasters were dragged through the courts. When the scandal was thrown into the spotlight with a public inquiry Vennells had already stepped down from her CEO position. Later, Paula Vennells who is a mother of two, issued an apology letter to the innocent postmasters. Vennells left her Post Office job with a whopping £400,000 bonus. Stay tuned.