The Post Office’s former head of IT wept as she was sworn into the Horizon inquiry – before telling invigilators she blocked former CEO Paula Vennells’ phone number after she allegedly sought help with ‘avoiding an independent inquiry’.
Lesley Sewell struggled to contain her emotions at the beginning of Thursday’s Horizon IT inquiry proceedings, stumbling over her words as she gave the affirmation ahead of giving evidence.
Ex-IT boss Ms Sewell, who left the company in November 2015 after five and a half years, had to be comforted as she vowed ‘solemnly, sincerely and truly…that the evidence I give shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’.
But she went on to say that Ms Vennells – who handed back her CBE for services to the Post Office following intense public anger after the broadcast of ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office – contacted her several times after she left the firm.
Ms Sewell told the probe in her witness statement that she was contacted by Ms Vennells four times in 2020 and 2021 – adding that she eventually blocked her number because she ‘did not feel comfortable with her contacting me’.
Lesley Sewell (right) became emotional as she gave an affirmation ahead of giving evidence to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry
Ms Sewell was the former head of IT and was later chief information officer at Post Office Ltd
Ms Sewell said she was contacted four times by ex-Post Office CEO Paula Vennells (pictured) after she left the company to ‘plug some memory gaps’ in the hope of avoiding an inquiry
An email Ms Vennells said she needed to ‘plug some memory gaps’ about Horizon and ‘Project Sparrow’ – a sub-committee which sought to get rid of forensic accountants who found bugs in the faulty Fujitsu system.
Her statement read: ‘To the best of my knowledge and research, Paula Vennells contacted me four times in 2020 and 2021 via either email, telephone call or text message. It has taken me some time to locate all of these communications.
‘On March 8, 2020, Paula Vennells emailed my personal email account from a personal email account of hers.
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‘I had not spoken to Paula since I had left the Post Office in 2015.’
Ms Vennells said she had been ‘been asked at short notice to appear before a… Select Committee on all things Horizon/Sparrow and need to plug some memory gaps!’
Her email added: ‘My hope is this might help avoid an independent inquiry but to do so, I need to be well prepared.’
Ms Sewell, who went on to become chief information officer before resigning: ‘Paula contacted me on four occasions in total. I recall blocking her number after the last call as I did not feel comfortable with her contacting me.’
In shorthand notes she had written following a telephone call with the former chief executive, Ms Sewell wrote that ‘PV got jumpy’ as they discussed a 2014 report by Deloitte, which suggested remote access to subpostmasters’ accounts was possible.
The notes also said the pair had discussed how ‘lawyers say we didn’t do anything’ about the report, which was codenamed ‘Project Zebra’.
The document appeared to suggest they also spoke about how a ‘judicial review will have weight’, which then had an arrow pointing to the words ‘public inquiry’.
Those words were also linked with arrows to the phrase ‘evidence unsafe’, followed by ‘Post Office knew it was unsafe’ and ‘public affront’ – which appeared to be under the heading ’23rd Court of App’, referencing the Court of Appeal case which quashed 39 wrongful convictions.
The notes, shown to the inquiry, also make reference to ‘3,700 (who) lost money as (a) result of shortfalls’.
Anger about the Horizon scandal exploded after the broadcast of ITV dramatisation Mr Bates vs The Post Office
The drama centred on subpostmaster Alan Bates, who has become a leading campaigner for those wrongly convicted because of flaws in the Horizon system (the real Mr Bates pictured above leaving the inquiry last month)
Ms Sewell said: ‘I believe the reference to ‘in light of 3,700 lost money as result of shortfalls’ is a reference to the number of subpostmasters with shortfalls.
‘I also recall Paula converting this number into a monthly average of subpostmasters with shortfalls.
‘I had not heard these figures prior to this conversation.
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‘If I had been aware of the magnitude of the losses during my tenure, I would have been surprised and concerned about this.’
Ms Sewell said in her submission she would have had a ‘high-level awareness’ of the Horizon system, flaws with which led to hundreds of wrongful convictions for subpostmasters after money appeared to go missing from their branches.
She added that she was ‘not involved with concerns about disputed shortfalls in branch accounts’.
At the beginning of her evidence, the inquiry’s chairman Sir Wyn Williams said he appreciated Ms Sewell’s attendance at the probe as ‘upsetting’.
His words followed Ms Sewell appearing to tear up as she took an oath ahead of giving evidence.
Sir Wyn said: ‘Ms Sewell, I appreciate this may be upsetting for you, Ms Price will ask you a number of questions in a proper and sensible manner, but if at any time you feel you need a break, just let me know, all right?’
The Post Office has come under fire following the ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, which put the Horizon IT scandal under the spotlight.
More than 700 subpostmasters were prosecuted by the Post Office and handed criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015 as Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon system made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.
Hundreds of subpostmasters are still awaiting full compensation despite the Government announcing those who have had convictions quashed are eligible for £600,000 payouts.