Former UK Post Office boss breaks down in inquiry over scandal that saw hundreds wrongly convicted
The former head of Britain's Post Office Paula Vennells broke down in tears on several occasions as she gave evidence Wednesday to an inquiry into one of the country’s biggest miscarriages of justice that saw hundreds of branch managers wrongly convicted of theft or fraud because of a faulty computer system. Vennells, who earlier this year gave back her Commander of the Order of the British Empire title that she received in 2019, admitted that she had made mistakes but denied there was a conspiracy to cover up the scandal. After the Post Office introduced the Horizon information technology system 25 years ago to automate sales accounting, local managers began finding unexplained losses that bosses said they were responsible for covering. The Post Office maintained that Horizon, which was made by the Japanese company Fujitsu, was reliable and accused branch managers of dishonesty.