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.