A former Pitlochry postmaster who lost everything in the Post Office scandal has blasted Paula Vennells’ “crocodile tears” at the Horizon inquiry.
Chris Dawson said he could not forgive the former chief executive for the heartache he went through after he was wrongly suspected of stealing from his branch.
And he says she and other bosses should lose their pensions so the money can go towards compensation for the victims of the Horizon scandal.
“I watched Paula Vennells’ less than half-hearted apology,” said Mr Dawson.
“I wasn’t impressed with the crocodile tears.
“In my opinion, she should go straight to jail without passing go.”
Paula Vennells broke down several times while giving evidence to the inquiry into the Post Office Horizon IT scandal on Wednesday.
She apologised at the beginning of her evidence and said her answers “will be difficult to listen to”.
Mr Dawson was one of around 3,000 sub-postmasters who were pursued by the Post Office for alleged theft and fraud.
In 2019, a high court case ruled it was the Horizon IT system that had been at fault.
Ms Vennells told the inquiry she was misled by staff about the safety of the prosecutions and “was too trusting”.
‘No one’s going to hire the guy who robbed the post office’
Her words brought no comfort for Mr Dawson, who lost his business, his home, his marriage and his good name when he was wrongly suspected of stealing thousands of pounds from his post office in Pitlochry in May 2010.
He was suspended while the Post Office investigated.
Mr Dawson says he was put under pressure to admit he had taken the money.
He was eventually cleared after months of “interrogation”, but was told it was his responsibility to make good on the £17,500 shortfall which the Horizon computer system had flagged up.
“I wasn’t charged with anything,” he said.
“And I refused to plead guilty to something I knew I hadn’t done and didn’t believe my staff had done.
“But I lived under the constant threat that they’d come knocking at my door.”
The episode took its toll on Mr Dawson’s marriage and his mental health.
He went bankrupt and lost his home and his car.
But it was the harm done to his reputation that convinced him he had to leave Pitlochry for Ayrshire, where he lives now.
“Pitlochry is a small community, but mine was a big post office,” he said.
“It was the only one in the area that did car tax, foreign currency, that kind of thing. So people travelled from all over – Blair Atholl, Kinloch Rannoch, Aberfeldy – to use it.
“All these people knew I was under suspicion of theft. You can’t ignore the rumour mill.
“It left me a basket case, unemployable,” he added.
“Pitlochry is a cash-handling town. No one’s going to hire the guy who robbed the post office.”
Praise for TV drama
Mr Dawson, who ran the Pitlochry post office and the smaller branch at Kinloch Rannoch from 2007-2010, gave evidence to the Post Office Horizon Inquiry in 2022.
He received an apology from current Post Office CEO Nick Read last year, and insisted on getting it in writing.
He says Paula Vennells and fellow Post Office chiefs should forego their pensions.
“That money should be put towards compensation, rather than taking it from tax-payers,” he said.
And he is grateful to the ITV drama Mr Bates v The Post Office for catapulting the Horizon scandal into the public eye.
“If it doesn’t win all the awards for drama it will be another miscarriage of justice,” he said.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed earlier this year that the Post Office is under criminal investigation over “potential fraud offences” committed during the Horizon scandal.
Officers are already investigating two former Fujitsu experts, witnesses in the trials, for perjury and perverting the course of justice, with those in question interviewed under caution and no arrests made.
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