MINISTER: JAIL POST OFFICE BULLIES!

'Lock them up' says top Tory as fury mounts over cruel hounding of sub-postmasters

- Jonathan Walker and David Williamson

A MINISTER has called for Post Office chiefs behind the scandal that ruined the lives of innocent workers to be jailed. 

Kevin Hollinrake said guilty parties should face a prison sentence, saying: “Those people can be criminally prosecuted and potentially can go to jail.

“People must be held to account. Unless we start locking people up, that is the ultimate deterrent – let’s start doing that or this stuff will just carry on.”

Asked if he thought prison was appropriate, the Post Office Minister said: “I absolutely do and we should have done it in the banking scandal as well.” Last night Tory grandee David Davis waded in, saying: “It does seem to me that actions have been taken that were designed to pervert the course of justice, and that is an incredibly serious charge.

“If that is proven then I expect it to go to court, I expect prosecutions to happen, and what comes out of that will be up to the court.” Mr Hollinrake made his comments on Any Questions on BBC Radio 4. They came as it emerged that former Post Office boss Paula Vennells had branded sub-postmasters criminals in a letter to MPs, despite being aware that a faulty computer system could be to blame.