'Subbies with their hands in the tills'

POST Office boss Alan Cook accused staff of stealing from the till during the Horizon IT scandal.

- SOPHIE HUSKISSON, LIZZY BUCHAN

And in a 2009 email, he insisted the accounting system was stable and reliable.

Mr Cook, managing director from 2006 to 2010, added: "My instincts tell me that, in a recession, subbies [subpostmasters] with their hand in the till choose to blame the technology when they are found to be short of cash."

Yesterday, he told the IT inquiry his message to a Royal Mail PR officer is one he will "regret for the rest of my life".

Mr Cook added: "It was an inappropriate thing to put in an email."