Shamed Post Office boss Paula Vennells knew there was a 'covert operations ... trends now

Post Office boss Paula Vennells was aware there was a 'covert operations team' at Fujitsu that could alter subpostmasters' accounts remotely, newly unearthed recordings have revealed. 

The former chief executive had been briefed about allegations concerning the existence of the remote unit at Fujitsu's Bracknell headquarters in 2013, two years before she told MPs there had not been 'any miscarriages of justice'. 

Bombshell new audio, obtained by Channel 4 News, reveals Ms Vennells was told about the claims, made by former Post Office union rep Michael Rudkin after visiting Bracknell in 2008, and that the Post Office was investigating.

More than 900 sub-postmasters were convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting between 1999 and 2015 due to faults in Fujitsu's Horizon system. For more than two decades, sub-postmasters complained the system was faulty.

The shocking injustice was thrown back into the spotlight in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, based on campaigner Alan Bates's bid for justice.

In the recordings, dating back to 2013, two forensic accountants from Second Sight - the firm hired by the Post Office to conduct an independent investigation - appear on a call with Post Office general counsel Susan Crichton. 

One of the investigators, Ron Warmington, warns that Ms Vennells could be questioned by James Arbuthnot - a local MP campaigning on behalf of the subpostmasters - about the covert Bracknell operation.

He says: 'If James says something like, "And where are you on this assertion about the Bracknell covert operations team, as it was referred to by Rudkin?"'

Crichton can then be heard twice confirming that Ms Vennells had been briefed about the allegation. 

She says: 'Well look, that's a specific case. We'll come back to it when we finish the investigation.'

Warmington adds: 'Yeah, well, as long as she doesn't come back and say, "Look, so what's this Bracknell issue, what is he talking about?" Oh, we've known about that for two months.'

Crichton replies: 'She knows about the allegation. She knows we are working on it.'

'Oh, that's alright then. Good.' Warmington responds. 'We mentioned it to her. We're all going, "Well, that's all very odd."' 

Later in the same tape Crichton advises again of her role in appraising Paula Vennells of issues identified by the independent investigation. 

She says: 'She's got everything. The way that I've tried to brief Paula is, as soon as I have evidence that you know, that there is a problem, she knows about it the next minute.'

Ms Vennells ran the Post Office at the height of the scandal while it routinely denied there was a problem with its Horizon IT system. The Post Office continued to deny remote access was possible until 2019.

Claims of Fujitsu having a 'covert operations team' which could remotely access Postmaster's accounts were first brought to light by former Post Office union rep Michael Rudkin after he visited Fujitsu's Bracknell headquarters on August 19, 2008. 

After being shown the recordings by Channel 4 news, Mr Rudkin recalled how he was shown staff members remotely accessing Postmasters' accounts despite being told categorically by the Post Office that this was impossible.

He said: 'My chaperone introduced me to those that were left as being the covert operations team. 

'I was astounded. He altered the figures of one of the branch accounts on a live terminal in the boiler room at Fujitsu headquarters.

'I asked him: Have you just altered those figures and is this real time? The reply was: 'Yes'. I said: 'Are you absolutely sure? 'Yes', this is real time.' 

'Realising my disdain as to what I'd just witnessed, I was then more or less just ushered back upstairs and pushed out through the door like a common criminal.'

The day after Mr Rudkin expressed concern at the revelation, a Post Office auditor turned up at his shop in Ibstock, Leicestershire, to tell him £44,000 was unaccounted for. 

Mr Rudkin was forced to repay the money and his wife Susan, who did most of the day-to-day running of the branch, was prosecuted and given a suspended prison sentence. 

He believes the action was taken against him after blowing the whistle on Horizon.