Will Paula Venells ever be held accountable?

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Originally Posted by BillyCasper

Thanks, if I read correctly, a government owned public body bringing private prosecutions in England but public prosecutions in Scotland and NI.

PO - falsely claimed victim, investigator and prosecutor. Justice of authoritarian states.

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I think in this case, the PO conducting its own prosecutions was simply the continuation of an historic situation. Before the CPS was founded in 1986, each police force had its own prosecutions unit, for example in London, the Met Police Solicitor's. Certain other government departments and bodies used to have their own units and some still do, I think this applies to HMRC, Customs & Excise and latterly the SFO.

None of that excuses for one moment the egregious abuse of power the PO have clearly exercised, nor the largardly manner in which they have compensated those they abused.

So yes, signed and shared!

Reckon PV is watching tonight’s episode?


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Originally Posted by BillyCasper

Reckon PV is watching tonight’s episode?


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Lets fing hope so!

I like the fact Alan Bates declined his OBE, hopefully its to do with the fact the CEO still has a CBE which after watching this show and reading up on a bit more beggars belief how she was given it in the first place...

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Originally Posted by Franky Four Fingers

Lets fing hope so!

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I somehow doubt she gives a sh**.

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Originally Posted by Maris

I somehow doubt she gives a sh**.

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Ditto Dildo Harding.

ICYMI...the Post Office Scandal website.

The older version is still archived online...www.postofficetrial.com

Signed

The small Post Office, newsagents and pubs were the hubs of the village community. Slowly at first, but rapidly now, being eroded by big business, greed etc. A really sad state of affairs and the lives being ruined in the course of this movement away to online etc services.

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Originally Posted by Ventura

The small Post Office, newsagents and pubs were the hubs of the village community. Slowly at first, but rapidly now, being eroded by big business, greed etc. A really sad state of affairs and the lives being ruined in the course of this movement away to online etc services.

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Whilst undoubtedly true, that’s hardly relevant to this discussion.

Unfortunately, it’s the likes of us who make it happen though; when a Tesco Express opened up close to my convenience store, I often saw what were previously my customers walking past my shop with a Tesco carrier bag in one hand. My prices were often better too.

That was twenty years ago.

Back on topic, I’ve signed the petition too.

Signed

I used to be an 'angry young man' I've become an 'incandescant old man' seeing the state of Lying/cover ups and useless governance. I daresay the "led by Donkeys" group who renamed Michelle Mones Yacht "Pandemic Profiteer" will get arrested for putting the sticker on it too. Also signed, John B4

Signed.

Let's hope she gets her award stripped from her.

I'm not planning to watch the drama as I won't know for sure what's fact and poetic license. I'll watch this thread and if people report it being a good watch I'll tune in. It's hard to believe that this isn't complete fiction. How could someone do what she did with the consequences there have been? Despicable.

It is a good watch...www.itv.com/watch/mr-bates-vs-the-post-office/10a0469, IMO.

I look at the cast and the fact that it's ITV and think....ugh. But I'll give it a go. Thanks.

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Originally Posted by PickleB

It is a good watch...www.itv.com/watch/mr-bates-vs-the-post-office/10a0469, IMO.

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Signed.

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Originally Posted by TaketheCannoli

I look at the cast and the fact that it's ITV and think....ugh. But I'll give it a go. Thanks.

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A couple of links to encourage you (even if you're not a fan of the Guardian):

• Toby Jones
  
  
• review

Edit: I don't often come across 9.0 ratings at imdb

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Originally Posted by TaketheCannoli

I look at the cast and the fact that it's ITV and think....ugh. But I'll give it a go. Thanks.

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Do so. It’s equally compelling and sad. It doesn’t feel like there’s much poetic license being used. And it’s not like any of the bad guys are moaning either. Heads down more like because they know it’s accurate.

I enjoyed those, thanks a lot.

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Originally Posted by PickleB

A couple of links to encourage you (even if you're not a fan of the Guardian):

• Toby Jones
• review

Edit: I don't often come across 9.0 ratings at imdb

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Private Eye have been covering the story for years. It has been grim reading the injustices heaped on the Postmasters.

A subscription is well worthwhile to know what the MSM are failing to report.

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Originally Posted by Ventura

The small Post Office, newsagents and pubs were the hubs of the village community. Slowly at first, but rapidly now, being eroded by big business, greed etc. A really sad state of affairs and the lives being ruined in the course of this movement away to online etc services.

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Use them or lose them. It's the village communities that cause the erosion by using big business/online shopping. Reminds me of the village pub closing and all the villagers protesting about it. Same villagers who you never saw in the pub except at Christmas.

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Originally Posted by Jubal

Do so. It’s equally compelling and sad. It doesn’t feel like there’s much poetic license being used. And it’s not like any of the bad guys are moaning either. Heads down more like because they know it’s accurate.

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Wrongly jailed postmaster praises TV drama:

A wrongly jailed former sub-postmaster says a new TV drama about the Horizon Post Office scandal is important in getting the story to a wider audience.

Noel Thomas, 77, from Anglesey, was one of more than 700 convicted in the miscarriage of justice.

"I think it's going to bring it home for a lot of people," said the man sent to prison for false accounting in 2006, whose conviction was quashed in 2021.

ITV's Mr Bates vs The Post Office tells the tale of the lives that were ruined.

Responding to the programme the Post Office said it "sincerely apologises to the victims".

Mr Thomas, from Gaerwen, said the four-part series, which stars Detectorists actor Toby Jones, was hugely important in securing a bigger voice for victims.

"We've been a small unit of about 500 of us but it hasn't really got out there until now, and hopefully this programme will get to reach more viewers.

"It's been 18 years for me and it's been hell for a lot of people."...

I've signed the petition, although for some reason the TV programme seems to be portraying Venells as somebody who was simply out of her depth, and under significant pressure (the Royal Mail's business has been shrinking massively as a result of email and online shopping) in making the decisions that she did.

That's somewhat different to how she has been described by Computer Weekly and Private Eye, both of whom were running the story long before any other media was interested.

Hopefully the postmasters/postmistresses affected will receive appropriate compensation, although it's still dragging on (and how do you compensate somebody who has been wrongly imprisoned, or has taken their own life?). And the chances of any of the culpable, whether at the Post Office or at Fujitsu, being punished is sadly vanishingly small.

Nadhim Zahawi rehabilitating his reputation?

No chance I’ll be voting for the LibDems now. I’ve tended to for tactical voting reasons, even though our MP is dreadful. Ed Davey was the responsible minister at the time and did nothing, wasn’t interested. Always thought he was an arse.


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Venells CBE (for charity & Post Office work) will be at home a not give a flying %£#@ leisurely taking a glance at her bank balance and pension draw down and ‘meh’ shall we take a few weeks in the sun till it blows over….. fingers in ears lalalala and possibly end up in Jungle next year on a big wedge £££.

They are a breed with a core of cold steel zero empathy for anyone and capable of heinous stuff whilst convincing themselves of their own reality they are always either the hero or the victim in their storyline.

The fact she was an Anglican Priest sat on the C of E Ethics Board, became a Chairwoman of NHS Trust and got a CBE from May after the Scandal says as much about our hidden handshake society as it does about Venells.

This 100% and there are so many more like her. Self-interest is always the prime target.

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Originally Posted by TKH

Venells CBE (for charity & Post Office work) will be at home a not give a flying %£#@ leisurely taking a glance at her bank balance and pension draw down and ‘meh’ shall we take a few weeks in the sun till it blows over….. fingers in ears lalalala and possibly end up in Jungle next year on a big wedge £££.

They are a breed with a core of cold steel zero empathy for anyone and capable of heinous stuff whilst convincing themselves of their own reality they are always either the hero or the victim in their storyline.

The fact she was an Anglican Priest sat on the C of E Ethics Board, became a Chairwoman of NHS Trust and got a CBE from May after the Scandal says as much about our hidden handshake society as it does about Venells.

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Prosecutions really should happen over this. Start from the bottom. Clearly the support/help desk people knew that these problems were happening to multiple people yet they persisted in telling each sub postmaster that they were the 'only one' this was happening to. They didn't make this up themselves so, being told to do this, and doing it knowingly, must make them guilty of attempting to alter/pervert the course of justice at the very least. Next should be whoever gave them the instruction to say that, (can't see people at that level accepting being the fall guy/girl, they'll talk), and so on up the chain.

Follow the chain!

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Originally Posted by Griswold

Prosecutions really should happen over this. Start from the bottom. Clearly the support/help desk people knew that these problems were happening to multiple people yet they persisted in telling each sub postmaster that they were the 'only one' this was happening to. They didn't make this up themselves so, being told to do this, and doing it knowingly, must make them guilty of attempting to alter/pervert the course of justice at the very least. Next should be whoever gave them the instruction to say that, (can't see people at that level accepting being the fall guy/girl, they'll talk), and so on up the chain.

Follow the chain!

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Is Plod on it? I´m not really following the case...but surely the without fear or favour stipulations- aspirations apply...?

120,000 have signed so far, not sure this will blow over

I notice - with considerable nausea - that Ed Davies is trying to distance himself from his responsibility in this matter:

https://www.theguardian.com/business...aiting-payouts


I also notice that Adam Crozier's name and reputation somehow magically continues to elude a richly-deserved bemerding. ITV's cowardly omission of his name from the docudrama is just the latest incident in his miraculously Teflon-coated career. Chairman of BT Group now I see...

As ever, those responsible for so much misery are never actually held responsible...

Oh Dear - never mind - not that bad - get over it - chin up - keep calm - meh.

Ed Davey , sorry Sir Ed

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Alan Bates, who is played by Toby Jones in the drama, has claimed that in 2010 he approached Davey, then postal affairs minister, but the MP said he did not believe a meeting “would serve any purpose”
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Originally Posted by TKH

Oh Dear - never mind - not that bad - get over it - chin up - keep calm - meh.

Ed Davey , sorry Sir Ed

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Alan Bates, who is played by Toby Jones in the drama, has claimed that in 2010 he approached Davey, then postal affairs minister, but the MP said he did not believe a meeting “would serve any purpose”
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Oh dear indeed, that´s his credibility bolt loosed, onus was on him and it looks he was resolute about not bovvered- taking action.

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Originally Posted by earlofsodbury

<snip>


I also notice that Adam Crozier's name and reputation somehow magically continues to elude a richly-deserved bemerding. ITV's cowardly omission of his name from the docudrama is just the latest incident in his miraculously Teflon-coated career. Chairman of BT Group now I see...

As ever, those responsible for so much misery are never actually held responsible...

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Crozier effortlessly moves from one gilt edged job to another. Remember him at the FA?

As CEO of ITV it is little wonder his name has been omitted from the Post Office scandal is it?

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Originally Posted by Neil.C

... As CEO of ITV it is little wonder his name has been omitted from the Post Office scandal is it?

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Former CEO, as of 2017, FWIW. According to a statement by ITV his omission was purely a case of relevance to story...

I'm more concerned that most of the media continues to leave his involvement and culpability unexamined.

Wasn't Crozier Royal Mail (letter and parcel delivery) rather than Post Office (counter services), around that time operationally and then entirely separate from Post Office?

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Originally Posted by BillyCasper

Wasn't Crozier Royal Mail (letter and parcel delivery) rather than Post Office (counter services), around that time operationally and then entirely separate from Post Office?

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According to Wiki..."Crozier was CEO of Royal Mail at a crucial period in the Post Office scandal when the Post Office was still part of Royal Mail,"...

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Originally Posted by adrianw

Bump this

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitio...4-6e47928d315f

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Originally Posted by BillyCasper

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https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...8b75df597f.jpg



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Let's hope someone listens, then once they strip Venells they can go after Davey

Dozens more seek legal help after TV drama:

Fifty new potential victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal have contacted lawyers after ITV broadcast a drama about the case this week.

Neil Hudgell, a lawyer acting for claimants, told the BBC that the new enquiries include former sub-postmasters who were given convictions...

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Originally Posted by adrianw

Let's hope someone listens, then once they strip Venells they can go after Davey

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Fuck that, she and her cohorts should be stripped of honours, pensionsand put in prison.

Post Office under criminal investigation for potential fraud over Horizon scandal:

The Post Office is under criminal investigation over “potential fraud offences” committed during the Horizon scandal, the Metropolitan police have confirmed for the first time.

Officers are “investigating potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions”, for example “monies recovered from sub-postmasters [operators] as a result of prosecutions or civil actions”, Scotland Yard said on Friday evening.

It is not clear whether the investigation relates to individual staff members or the Post Office as a corporate entity...

Nice to see the MET is on the ball after twenty years…

Surely this is at its heart quite a straightforward case?

If Post Office leaders and managers knew there were problems with the Horizon system, and yet didn’t admit it while continuing to prosecute, ruin and imprison innocent people then they are guilty of something very serious indeed.

It is very clear already that some departments d know, but hushed it up and prosecuted hundreds of victims regardless.

They need to suffer the full force of the law for that and see how much they like it.

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Originally Posted by PickleB

Post Office under criminal investigation for potential fraud over Horizon scandal:

The Post Office is under criminal investigation over “potential fraud offences” committed during the Horizon scandal, the Metropolitan police have confirmed for the first time.

Officers are “investigating potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions”, for example “monies recovered from sub-postmasters [operators] as a result of prosecutions or civil actions”, Scotland Yard said on Friday evening.

It is not clear whether the investigation relates to individual staff members or the Post Office as a corporate entity...

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But haven't the Met been investigating since 2020?
Seems rather odd that ITV has seemingly managed to uncover more than the Met in that same time.....

You can phone the press office and make your views known,I did.

Called me back and didnt try to end the call.

Be persistent and call out the lies.



https://corporate.postoffice.co.uk/en/media-centre#/

I have also been trying to report fraud caused by them to their own fraud department.

Whatever you may think of JK listen at least to the first woman,its beyond belief (as it all is).

I fail to see what she could have done different.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYDho_lZqV0&t=3047s

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Originally Posted by bwest76

Whatever you may think of JK listen at least to the first woman,its beyond belief (as it all is).

I fail to see what she could have done different.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYDho_lZqV0&t=3047s

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See also www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDQvi7vge9k

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Originally Posted by TheFlyingBanana

Nice to see the MET is on the ball after twenty years…

Surely this is at its heart quite a straightforward case?

If Post Office leaders and managers knew there were problems with the Horizon system, and yet didn’t admit it while continuing to prosecute, ruin and imprison innocent people then they are guilty of something very serious indeed.

It is very clear already that some departments d know, but hushed it up and prosecuted hundreds of victims regardless.

They need to experience the full force of the law (that they used extensively to prosecute and obscufate) and see how much they like it.

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Totally agree, they should be prosecuted. John B4

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...bc78497411.jpg

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Originally Posted by TheFlyingBanana

Nice to see the MET is on the ball after twenty years…

Surely this is at its heart quite a straightforward case?

If Post Office leaders and managers knew there were problems with the Horizon system, and yet didn’t admit it while continuing to prosecute, ruin and imprison innocent people then they are guilty of something very serious indeed.

It is very clear already that some departments d know, but hushed it up and prosecuted hundreds of victims regardless.

They need to suffer the full force of the law for that and see how much they like it.

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