The previous head of Britain’s state-owned Post Office is handing back a royal honor in reaction to fury over her function in a miscarriage of justice that saw hundreds of postmasters wrongfully implicated of theft
ByJILL LAWLESS Associated Press
FILE – A Royal Mail Post Office is seen in London, Thursday, Oct. 10,2013 U.K. authorities have opened a scams examination into Britain’s Post Office over a miscarriage of justice that saw hundreds of postmasters wrongfully implicated of taking cash, when a malfunctioning computersystem system was to blame. The Metropolitan Police stated late Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, that it was examining “potential scams offenses emerging out of these prosecutions,” relating to cash the Post Office got “as a outcome of prosecutions or civil actions” versus incorrectly implicated postal employees. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)
The Associated Press
LONDON — The previous head of Britain’s state-owned Post Office stated Tuesday she will hand back a royal honor in reaction to installing fury over a miscarriage of justice that saw hundreds of postmasters wrongfully implicated of theft since of a malfunctioning computersystem system.
The British federalgovernment is thinkingabout whether to deal a mass amnesty to more than 700 branch supervisors foundedguilty of theft or scams inbetween 1999 and 2015, duetothefactthat Post Office computersystems mistakenly revealed that cash was missingouton from their stores. The genuine perpetrator was a faulty accounting system called Horizon, provided by the Japanese innovation company Fujitsu.
Ex-Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells stated she would giveup the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire that she got in2018 An online petition calling for her to be removed of the honor hasactually gathered more than 1.2 million advocates.
“I have listened and I verify that I return my CBE with instant impact,” stated Vennells, who led the Post Office inbetween 2012 and 2019.
“I am really so