Paula Vennells claims ‘I was too trusting’ as she gives evidence at Post Office Horizon IT inquiry

Paula Vennells has said she was “too trusting” as she was asked if she was the “unluckiest CEO in the United Kingdom”.

Giving evidence on her first day at the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry on Wednesday (22 May), Jason Beer KC asked Ms Vennells: “Do you think you are the unluckiest CEO in the United Kingdom?”

She replied: “As the inquiry has heard, there was information I wasn’t given and others didn’t receive as well.

“One of my reflections of all of this – I was too trusting.”

Hundreds of subpostmasters were prosecuted by the business between 1999 and 2015 after Horizon, owned by Japanese company Fujitsu, made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.