‘She’s ruined thousands of lives over the years’
Alan Bates has called for former Post Office boss Paula Vennells to have her CBE taken off her following the release of ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
The four-part series is based on the real-life story of how numerous postmasters, including Bates, were wrongly prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 for theft, false accounting, and/or fraud after mysterious financial losses kept appearing in village post office tills.
The actual cause of the losses was a faulty new computer system called Horizon that had been installed across the country.
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.
The series has left viewers “sick to their stomach” and “fuming” over the “vile” injustice carried out against the postmasters.
Now, Bates has called for Vennells, who was the CEO of Post Office from 2012 until 2019, to be stripped of her CBE.
He told Good Morning Britain on Tuesday: “I was offered an OBE but I’ve always said it’s not just about me. It’s about the whole group. But as far as myself goes I couldn’t accept it.
“I mean it would have been a slap in the face to the rest of the group because Paula Vennells, the CEO for many years of Post Office, received a CBE for her services to Post Office. Well, what service has she actually done?
“She’s caused devastation to a major British institution that was at the heart of communities. She’s ruined thousands of lives over the years.”
He concluded: “What on earth has she done to deserve that? It should be taken away now!”
The following days, Postal Services Minister Kevin Hollinrake appeared on GMB and said Vennells should “seriously look at handing back” her CBE voluntarily.
In December 2019, the Post Office agreed to pay £58 million in compensation for false prosecutions based on faulty evidence from the Horizon system, following a High Court judgement.
Justice Fraser described the Post Office’s denials about Horizon issues as “institutional obstinacy”. However, the group were only left with £12m – about £20,000 each – after legal costs.
Speaking to the Mirror, Bates said: “There were a whole host of very, very sad stories. The Post Office made people think they were going crazy.
They didn’t just inflict financial ruin, destroying livelihoods, it also destroyed families. But there was one positive.
“We were all together and we knew the truth. There was also a determination that we were going to expose the lies.”
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