'It's a shame it took people to cripple

FORMER Post Office chief Paula Vennells handed back her CBE yesterday as victims of the scandal asked why she was given it in the first place.

- Robert Kellaway

It took an astonishing ITV drama, a petition of 1.2 million signatures and an intervention by the Prime Minister before she surrendered the honour.

The former chief executive ran the Post Office while it prosecuted hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters and routinely denied there was a problem with its Horizon IT system.

More than 700 Post Office branch managers were convicted after the faulty Fujitsu accounting software made it look like money was missing from branches.

A two-year public inquiry into the scandal continues.

Ms Vennells said yesterday: "I am aware of the calls from subpostmasters and others to return my CBE.