Post Office chiefs may have to give back bonuses

Criminal prosecutions could follow for scandal bosses

- Nicholas Cecil & Jitendra Joshi

EX-POST Office chief Paula Vennells and other former executives involved in the Horizon scandal might have to hand back bonuses, a minister said today.

Postal services minister Kevin Hollinrake stressed that a public inquiry was key to identifying who was to blame for more than 900 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses being wrongly convicted for theft, fraud and false accounting in the biggest miscarriage of justice in British history.

Clawing back bonuses, and possibly criminal prosecutions, could follow against those responsible for the scandal, he added. Ministers were scrambling this morning to put together a package to dramatically speed up the so far painfully slow process of exonerating the hundreds of Horizon victims.

They have been holding talks with senior judges about the option of legislation for a mass clearing of the names of the wrongly convicted, though some of them want their day in court to get justice. Rishi Sunak was expected to update Parliament at Prime Minister’s Questions at midday.