Dozens of "damning" tapes are thought to have been uncovered by a public inquiry into the Post Office scandal, which includes shocking conversations between senior bosses.
The former boss of the Post Office faces calls to hand back her CBE after 230 former postmasters and postmistresses jailed in one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history.
Paula Vennells - who was managing director and then chief executive between 2010 and 2019 - has been accused of covering up the scandal by not investigating faults in the Horizon system.
As a result, innocent people were wrongly branded a thief over apparent account shortfalls created by the faulty computer system.
Dozens of 'damning' tapes have been uncovered by a public inquiry into the Post Office scandal which includes shocking conversations between senior bossesPANow, a series of covert recordings of senior Post Office staff, including Vennells, are to be exposed, according to reports.
It is expected that an estimated 80 tapes will be sent to those involved - including postmasters - in due course.
"They’re conversations with Post Office top brass including Paula Vennells. It’s very damning," a source told The Times.
According to the public inquiry, Vennells sent a company-wide “Horizon defence piece” as early as 2009 to defend the computer system.
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However, reports between 2010 and 2013 suggested the system had weaknesses and advice from a KC in 2013 found it was likely a senior IT expert had misled criminal trials when he failed to disclose his knowledge of bugs.
Kevin Hollinrake, the postal affairs minister, said Vennells should give her CBE back.
He said: "If I was Paula Vennells, I would say, well basically, the buck stops with me and I will hand back my CBE.
“I think that will be the right thing for Paula Vennells to do."
It is expected that an estimated 80 tapes will be sent to those involved - including postmasters - in due course
GETTYShe defended herself in June 2020 in a letter to the MPs’ business committee, saying it was up to senior lawyers to approve prosecutions and that she was misled by computer experts from Fujitsu, who told her the IT system was like “Fort Knox”.
In the summer of 2022 she said: “I remain truly sorry for the suffering caused to wrongly prosecuted sub-postmasters and their families.
"I continue to fully support and focus on co-operating with the inquiry and it would be inappropriate for me to comment further while it remains ongoing.”
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