Paula Vennells' crocodile tears simply won't do - she has to return the money
The money must be shared among the innocent people whose lives were ruined by the Post Office scandal, writes Vanessa Feltz
We all heard former boss Paula Vennells sob and snivel her way through the public inquiry into the Post Office scandal.
Vennells was paid £5.1million between 2012 and 2019. What were her excuses for presiding over the deliberatepersecution of sub-postmasters and mistresses resulting in at least four suicides, prosecution, imprisonment, bankruptcy, shattered marriages, smashed reputations, being shunned by friends and family and permanently impaired physical and mental health for more than 700 operators?
Between her sobs, Vennells claimed she did not fully understand the legal and technological sides of the business that she headed, and only became aware of glitches in the IT system in 2013.
She claimed to be ignorant of the fact the Horizon software imposed on sub-postmasters by the Post Office could be accessed remotely by third parties.
Yet, after watching a BBC documentary about the software in 2014, she sent an email to senior colleagues saying that she was “more bored than outraged” by the programme and accused decent hardworking victim Jo Hamilton of “lacking passion and admitting false accounting on TV”.
Vennells, an ordained church minister whose moral code should surely be pointing her towards righteousness, returned her CBE in January after a 1.2 million-strong public petition. Surely, she should now lose no time in refunding us the £5.1m she was paid?
If, as she claims, she failed to grasp the basic but essential elements of the company she ran, does that not amount to an admission of negligence? You can’t run a branch of McDonald’s and claim you don’t know what goes into a Big Mac.
You couldn’t be in charge of a launderette dyeing customers’ shirts shocking pink and use the excuse that you don’t know how the machines work while blithely continuing to draw your salary.
On my radio show I asked employment lawyer Gillian Howard if it was naive to imagine Vennells could be prevailed upon to return her handsome remuneration. Ms Howard said Vennells’ protestations of ignorance may be tantamount to a confirmation of negligence. “You can’t be head honcho, take a fat pay cheque and admit that you didn’t have the faintest idea what was happening on your watch,” she said.
“There is precedent for company chiefs having to pay back the money they have earned when their performance has been notably sub-par.”
Give back the £5.1m Ms Vennells, for it to be shared immediately among the innocent people whose lives were trampled on and ground to dust by the Post Office. We don’t care if those were crocodile tears last week. Show us the money.
