Post Office: Paula Vennells only wanted to pay sub-postmasters ‘token’ compensation, inquiry hears

Paula Vennells only wanted to pay wrongly convicted sub-postmasters “token” compensation payments.

Minutes from a February 2014 meeting shown to the inquiry show the then Post Office chief executive complaining that a planned mediation scheme was projected to potentially pay out a total of £100 million.

“It was noted by PV [Paula Vennells] that the projected level of claims was currently c. £100[million], in response to which SS [Second Sight, a forensic accounting firm involved in auditing Horizon] noted that their back of the envelope calculation was of the order of £25 to £50m,” the minutes read.

“PV observed that this was a long way from the figures that were in mind when the scheme was established, which were much smaller, and more of the nature of a ‘token’ with an apology.”

The meeting was attended by Ms Vennells, Chris Aujard, the Post Office’s general counsel respectively, and Ron Warmington and Ian Henderson from Second Sight.

#postoffice #inquiry #horizon

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