Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells to hand back CBE

Vennells has apologised for the 'devastation caused to the sub-postmasters and their families'

It comes after a petition calling for her to do so reached more than a million signatures on Monday.

In a statement this afternoon, Vennells said: "I continue to support and focus on co-operating with the inquiry and expect to be giving evidence in the coming months.

"I have so far maintained my silence as I considered it inappropriate to comment publicly while the inquiry remains ongoing and before I have provided my oral evidence. I am, however, aware of the calls from sub-postmasters and others to return my CBE.

"I have listened and I confirm that I return my CBE with immediate effect.

"I am truly sorry for the devastation caused to the sub-postmasters and their families, whose lives were torn apart by being wrongly accused and wrongly prosecuted as a result of the Horizon system.

"I now intend to continue to focus on assisting the inquiry and will not make any further public comment until it has concluded."

The calls for Vennells to hand back her honour were prompted by ITV drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which is about the Post Office Horizon scandal.

This saw numerous postmasters wrongly prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 for theft, false accounting, and/or fraud after mysterious financial losses kept appearing in village post office tills.

What was really at fault, though, was their new computer system Horizon.

Mr Bates vs The Post Office follows the story of Alan Bates, who along with his partner Suzanne Sercombe in 1998, used life savings to buy a Post Office branch in Llandudno, North Wales.

When money went missing, Alan denied responsibility like other postmasters, leading to the Post Office ending their contract within three months and them losing their £65,000 investment.

Rather understandably, the show left viewers feeling ‘sickened’ about the miscarriage of justice.

Vennells had been CEO of the Post Office from 2012 to 2019, eventually stepping down amid anger over the Horizon scandal.

During her tenure as CEO, she had repeatedly denied the Horizon system was faulty.

In the wake of the ITV series, the real-life Bates Vennells, to be stripped of her CBE, and a petition was set up calling for the same thing.

In a matter of days, it surpassed one million signatures.

Following her role at the Post Office, Vennells had took over as chair of the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in April 2019, but resigned after a group of post office operators won a high court case in which their convictions were ruled wrongful and Horizon to be at fault.

This ruling was then upheld on appeal in 2021.

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