Post Office scandal

[Newey]

So Paula Vennells, ex PO CEO, is in the hot seat at the inquiry today and surprise surprise she "cannot remember" didn't read the letter or email and this is a copy and paste from the inquiry.

Counsel to the Inquiry Jason Beer now returns to Vennells’s witness statement. He says she has often said she doesn’t recall matters that could potentially be damaging to the Post Office, but “has no problem” remembering things that attribute blame to others.

Why do you tend to remember things that diminish your blameworthiness, Beer asks Vennells.

Why/how do these people get such a huge salary with massive bonus, she should be made to pay back the bonuses after she is released from jail.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I’ve got a great story about how my mortgage company suddenly decided one day that I didn’t have a mortgage with them and for months any attempt to pay it just hit a dead end.

In the end they got very frustrated with me because I kept pestering them over an imaginary mortgage that they were convinced I’d made up.

It went on for about six months. Each time I’d speak to a different person.

Then they somehow realised that I did actually have a mortgage and I’d now missed about six payments. They gave me something like five working days to settle in full or they’d take me to court….and when I called back to explain they accused me of making the whole thing up as a ploy to avoid my mortgage payments.

The bank? Northern Rock.

I do sometimes wonder if you should record calls like this to the bank. So far as I know its perfectly legal, so long as you tell them at the start, like they do with you.

[Count Steer]

I’ve got a great story about how my mortgage company suddenly decided one day that I didn’t have a mortgage with them and for months any attempt to pay it just hit a dead end.

In the end they got very frustrated with me because I kept pestering them over an imaginary mortgage that they were convinced I’d made up.

It went on for about six months. Each time I’d speak to a different person.

Then they somehow realised that I did actually have a mortgage and I’d now missed about six payments. They gave me something like five working days to settle in full or they’d take me to court….and when I called back to explain they accused me of making the whole thing up as a ploy to avoid my mortgage payments.

The bank? Northern Rock.

I do sometimes wonder if you should record calls like this to the bank. So far as I know its perfectly legal, so long as you tell them at the start, like they do with you.

Correct.

(I have the technology with a house phone plumbed into the PC. Haven't needed to use it for banking purposes...yet ).

[Bike Breaker]

I agree with Potter. While a task can be delegated to a subordinate who becomes responsible and accountable for carrying it out, but their superior cannot delegate their own responsibility and accountability for the completion of the task. It's a form of strict liability. Not knowing that the task hasn't been completed is no defence. It's funny how many people at the top don't appear to know these things.

In my working days in the NHS, my direct line manager threatened my workmate and me that "heads will roll and it won't be mine" if a tender wasn't sent out to contractors the next day. I thought, if my head was going to roll, so would everyone's above me in the chain of command, right up to the CEO. I was going on holiday in 2 days time so the two of us worked late (no change there, then) and did as we were told. Both of us were safe from head-rolling because we had finished our task in accordance with the manager's order.

When I returned I asked my workmate if the contractors had submitted their prices. Er, no, because our manager hadn't obtained approval from the department's director to send them out, so they had been recalled. His head didn't roll.

[Mussels]

So Paula Vennels buried the buried the report on false evidence because her PR manager told her it wouldn't look good.
I'd like to know how complicit the CPS was in this, did they know how ropey the evidence they were using was?

[Yorick]

So Paula Vennels buried the buried the report on false evidence because her PR manager told her it wouldn't look good.
I'd like to know how complicit the CPS was in this, did they know how ropey the evidence they were using was?

Were the CPS involved ? IIRC, the PO were judge, jury & executioner

[Mussels]

So Paula Vennels buried the buried the report on false evidence because her PR manager told her it wouldn't look good.
I'd like to know how complicit the CPS was in this, did they know how ropey the evidence they were using was?

Were the CPS involved ? IIRC, the PO were judge, jury & executioner

They didn't do as many of the prosecutions but there were a few, it seems unclear how many relied on Horizon claims.

[Yambo]

When the enquiry is all done and dusted Paula Vennells (and a fair few others) should be prosecuted - there's got to be something they can do her for (she lied to MPs but I don't know if she committed perjury).

However, here's a prediction: As soon as she is charged with whatever, she'll develop dementia or Alzheimers only to make a remarkable recovery when the CPS decide she's not well enough to stand trial.