Calling the fraud convictions of innocent post office subpostmasters a miscarriage of justice hardly covers the years of criminal malfeasance on the part of the overpaid bosses who seemingly knew the fault lay in the accounting computer system installed in 1999. The latest ruling has set aside 39 convictions as unsafe, which had led to prison for some, others lost their homes, were shunned by their communities, and a number died before their names were cleared – lives ruined for fifteen years. The Post Office prosecuted a total of 736 people, many more of whom are now expected to go to the courts to have their own convictions quashed.
The judges said: “Post Office Limited’s failures of investigation and disclosure were so egregious as to make the prosecution of any of the ‘Horizon cases’ an affront to the conscience of the court.” £58 million has already been paid to 550 subpostmasters who won group litigation in 2019 and many more are to come so the total could exceed £300 million in payouts. The Post Office spent £32million to deny any fault before capitulating and since the Government owns 100 per cent of the shares taxpayers will fund the compensation payments.
There are calls for the bosses to be penalised, notably Paula Vennells, the former chief executive from 2012 to 2019, who was awarded a CBE in 2019 for services to the Post Office (in 2019??) and received bonuses of more than £2.2 million she received as part of her £4.5 million earnings during her seven-year tenure.
Born 21 February 1959, she’s a Boris-on-steroids-whirlwind with a Pisces Sun Mercury opposition Pluto square Jupiter opposition Mars in Gemini. And an impulsive Yod of Saturn sextile Neptune inconjunct Mars. She does – happily – look cratered this year and on for the next three though she undoubtedly won’t end up in prison. Her Mutable Grand Cross has moved by Solar Arc to collide with her Neptune and will continue to rain uncertainty, disappointment and devastation down on her head.
Alice Perkins, 24 May 1949, wife of Jack Straw, was chairman between 2011 and 2015 and in a position to demand the situation be properly investigated but didn’t. She has four planets spreads out through Gemini – Sun, Venus, Mercury and Uranus; with an ultra-determined Mars in Taurus square Pluto. She looks stressed in 2021/22/23 with tr Pluto opposition her Solar Arc Mars; and under high-tension pressure from this July onwards into 2022 with tr Uranus square her Pluto and then conjunct her Mars; with tr Saturn adding its dollop of gloom in 2022.
Moya Greene, 10 June 1954, was CEO from 2010 when 150 postmasters were prosecuted. She was the highest paid UK Civil Servant in 2010, with a basic salary of £498,000 and her total compensation for 2012/13 was reported by the Royal Mail as £3.7 million. She is another Gemini with her Sun in a super-ambitious trine to Neptune and sextile Pluto; with an opportunistic Mars opposition Jupiter tied into Saturn in Scorpio. She’s recently been through a very rocky patch which isn’t improving anytime soon with a stuck Solar Arc Sun conjunct her Pluto at the moment and much slipping and slithering over the next two to three years.
Why do the mills of justice grind quite so slowly? Last week there was an announcement that charges would be laid for perverting the course of justice against two retired police officers and a force solicitor for their statements following the Hillsborough disaster – and that happened in 1989 for heaven’s sake.
See previous post on Post Office: October 6 2020.
I remember when the sub-postmasters marched on London, I remember it specifically as our local one which was the nearest one you could go to after they had closed down two others. Anyway the poor man died leaving a widow with a baby. It was simply awful!
The post office is still open, but it acts more like a bank and grocery store. You cannot do the things you used to do: like obtain obtain passport forms. Whatever payment his widow gets, it won’t bring back her husband.
An awful, awful story, but I’m so glad they’ve been cleared. Justice needs to be done though. Pluto is needed at the moment – so much inefficiency and corruption coming to the surface.
(On a personal note, I’m not thrilled to see that Alice Perkins and I are astrological twins. Exactly the same birthday (day, month, year). I imagine the birth times are different though. A bit sobering to read Marjorie’s forecast for her.)
Every sign has its shadow side. Of all the geminis I know some are wonderful teachers, others are conscientious accountants, so it really does depend on how people use the energies they have been given to work with.
>>> £58 million has already been paid to 550 subpostmasters who won group litigation in 2019
That should be another scandal in itself as after legal costs, the 550 got £12 million – about £20K each.
Meanwhile £46 million going elsewhere.
Someone, somewhere beyond the Post Office should have been questioning the statistical likelihood of 736 people out of a branch network of (now) 11,500 committing theft or false accounting to the tune of thousands. Whether that be their union, the police or even the CPS.
Quote “Why do the mills of justice grind quite so slowly? Last week there was an announcement that charges would be laid for perverting the course of justice against two retired police officers and a force solicitor for their statements following the Hillsborough disaster – and that happened in 1989 for heaven’s sake.”
Marjorie, It’s because, as in the USA, the legal profession has been allowed to organise the legal process for its own benefit, the result being that it is almost totally corrupt in the sense that many hours of unnecessary time is charged for, the result being that the fees charged bear no relationship to the actual work necessary.
Heavens, there is that Geminian energy showing its shadiness again that we must be at saturation point by now. These past few short years have seen an astronomical amount of Gemini/Sagittarius folk be exposed in the mainstream. The slight surprise to this news piece is it’s actually women this time who are guilty of dishonest behaviour. Is Pluto exposing this particular sign as one of the worst manipulating culprits in the Pluto in Capricorn structure? Or is it showing us that those character traits are the cause of our many problems with people in power in general? We are definitely being shown something of which we should learn from less we repeat it all again. But what is the definitive answer being shown to us in the collective? Sometimes, I think it would be just far easier if the Creator just popped up in my tomato soup and told me straight to my face without all the symbolism, lol!
Maybe it’s that the scattergun approach of Gemini is highlighting the cracks in the system.
Put someone authorative in charge and the system would grind on as it did until Pluto entered Capricorn.
It was heartbreaking to hear all the wrongly accuseds’ accounts of how this ruined their entire lives, wrecked their families and the relatives of those who had died before receiving any sort of justice. The organisation is no stranger to profligacy – I remember in the early 2000s when the Post Office spent millions on rebranding itself as ‘Consignia’, then spent another million reverting back to their original name, but no one was held accountable and it was all conveniently forgotten about. Easier to persecute the little guy than look at the faults in the system itself. ‘Twas ever thus.
God, I forgot about that name change, VF. And I was working as a postie for Royal Mail at the time and remember this now you bring it up. Why fix something that isn’t broken? And what a waste of bloody money too. Folks and organizations with too much money often make the least sense.
CEOs like to rebrand so that one they are seen as a new broom. It reminds everybody to stay on their toes. It allows them to sell of parts of the business if they want to. They’d say “Post Office” wouldn’t convey the range of services the needed to deliver into stay relevant in the 2000s.
They’re taught this stuff on their MBAs.
It’s depressingly methodical and systematic.
And they say they’re worth big pay packets because of this knowledge *rolls eyes*
I think they should go to jail, good employees do not suddenly go bent, it shows the kind of people those CEO’s are.
@ delia
Would be even better if their assets were confiscated. Would teach them to do consciously and honestly what they are paid for with taxpayers money.
One may dream….
Those poor people!
Interesting that the Gemini/Sagittarius eclipses in action and Neptune square to them and Uranus in Taurus.
Can Pluto be undermining the the rich elitists at last?
It’s a fact that if you are one of them you have absolutely no scruples against the little people and anyway you can afford the best lawyers therefore no scruples, no conscience.
Never admit nor deny, that’s the Gemini persona.