Send Post Office executives to court, ex sub-postmistress says

A former sub-postmistress wrongly convicted of false accounting has called for former Post Office chiefs to be punished in the courts.

Lorraine Williams, from Anglesey, said they should "face court cases" and "be hit in their pockets".

Mrs Williams was accused of stealing £14,600 back in June 2011 and was later given a 52-week suspended sentence.

Her comments came after former CEO, Paula Vennells, said she would return her CBE in light of the scandal.

In an interview with Newyddion S4C, Mrs Williams, who ran a post office in Llanddaniel Fab, stated that further steps should now be taken.

"Why should she be given the opportunity to return it when it should have been taken from her?" said Mrs Williams.

"It's as though she's said 'There we are, you can have it back - everything's okay now'.

"She should have to go to court as we've had to do - she should be made to feel as we've had to feel."

One of hundreds convicted of false accounting, theft and fraud between 1999 and 2015 due to Japanese tech company Fujitsu's faulty Horizon software, Mrs Williams was ordered to repay the £14,600 missing on her watch and undertake 200 hours of community service.

After receiving legal advice, she pleaded guilty at Caernarfon Crown Court in 2012 in order to avoid jail, and later suffered numerous health conditions, depression and was ostracization from the local community as a result.

She said she travelled down a "very dark tunnel" on occasions and only survived the past decade and a half because of her family's support.

Her ordeal, and that of many others like her, has recently been highlighted in the acclaimed ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

"Is she [Paula Vennells] going to have nightmares over this, will it affect her family or will it affect her financially?" said Mrs Williams.

"No, probably not - but that's what should happen, just like it did to normal people like us.

"I just want it all over with once and for all and for whoever was responsible to be properly punished," she added.

Earlier on Tuesday, Ms Vennells said she had "listened" to the sub-postmasters and others calling for her to return the honour awarded to her in 2019 for "services to the Post Office".

"I am truly sorry for the devastation caused to the sub-postmasters and their families, whose lives were torn apart by being wrongly accused and wrongly prosecuted as a result," she said.

Fujitsu said it was fully committed to supporting the inquiry to learn from the events stretching back two decades.

"The inquiry has reinforced the devastating impact on postmasters' lives and that of their families, and Fujitsu has apologised for its role in their suffering," the firm said.