The actions of the Post Office caused the loss of jobs, bankruptcy, family breakdown, criminal convictions, prison sentences and at least four suicides.
[7]: 4 She then became marketing director for Lunn Poly, and later held similar roles for Reed International Exhibitions, Dixons Group and Sears plc.
[1][21] On 10 January 2024, BBC News reported sources told them that, around 2017 when Richard Chartres's tenure as Bishop of London was drawing to a close, Vennells had been interviewed for the post and reached the final shortlist of three.
The actions of the Post Office caused the loss of jobs, bankruptcy, family breakdown, criminal convictions, prison sentences and at least four suicides.
[25] In 2013, Post Office Limited hired forensic accounting firm Second Sight, headed by Ron Warmington, to investigate the Horizon software losses.
[29]: 12 Acting as a private prosecutor, the Post Office repeatedly failed to make full disclosure of known Horizon problems either to defendants or to the courts in hundreds of cases.
According to the Criminal Cases Review Commission the nondisclosure is "the most widespread miscarriage of justice the CCRC has ever seen and represents the biggest single series of wrongful convictions in British legal history".
The Conservative peer Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom said that "The hallmark of Paula Vennells' time as CEO was that she was willing to accept appalling advice from people in her management and legal teams.
[33] On 3 December 2020, it was announced that Vennells would step down as chair of the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, a position for which she was paid £50,000 a year, in April 2021, for personal reasons.
[37][38] In a BBC Panorama programme screened on 8 June 2020, reporter Nick Wallis is seen phoning Vennells, who terminates the call rather than answer his questions.
Wallis says "this is one of the biggest frustrations of covering this story ... the consistent refusal of the chief executive and the people at the top to answer serious questions about what has been happening".
[24] Vennells was portrayed by Lia Williams in a four-part television drama series, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, broadcast on ITV in January 2024 and released in its entirety on ITVX.
[46] Over three days in May 2024, Vennells gave sometimes tearful evidence to the statutory public inquiry into the Horizon scandal, chaired by Sir Wyn Williams.
[47] Vennells had submitted two witness statements totalling over 798 pages to the inquiry, which she denied was a "craven, self-serving account", as suggested by one of the counsel representing victims.
[47][48][49] Much of the evidence heard during the three days related to the extent that Vennells had known of flaws in the Horizon IT system and the unsafe nature of prosecutions of subpostmasters.
[48] In a later session, the inquiry saw an internal paper drawn up in February 2014 by a committee within the Department for Business and the Shareholder Executive which considered options for dismissing Vennells from her CEO role.
[53] In 2021, after the successful appeals by subpostmasters prosecuted and convicted in the Post Office scandal, the Communication Workers Union called for Vennells to be stripped of her CBE.
[55][56] On 8 January 2024, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's spokesman said he would "strongly support" the Honours Forfeiture Committee if it decided to look at revoking Vennells's CBE appointment.