Post Office needs to be investigated for corporate manslaughter, Nadhim Zahawi says

Nadhim Zahawi has called on the Post Office to be investigated for corporate manslaughter, following the deaths of Horizon victims who took their own lives.

The ex-chancellor has said he believes Paula Vennells, the former chief executive, did not tell the truth when questioned by MPs in 2015.

Recordings obtained by ITV News appear to show Second Sight forensic accountants pleading with senior Post Office staff to provide emails and information they were promised relating to remote access to Horizon at Fujitsu’s Bracknell HQ.

Speaking to the broadcaster, Mr Zahawi said: “I think [Ms Vennells] lied to the select committee because clearly they were not forthcoming.

“And now with this explosive recording ITV News has obtained, I think there’s enough circumstantial evidence certainly, for a thorough police investigation.”

Mr Zahawi added: “I don’t think it’s good enough that we keep falling back on ‘well let the [Post Office] inquiry do its work’, this is much more serious.

“There needs to be an investigation into corporate manslaughter and individuals at the Post Office.”

At least four sub-postmasters, blamed for fictional shortfalls produced by faulty Horizon software, are known to have taken their own lives.

On Friday night, it was reported that the widow of a postmaster who took his life in 2005 after investigators raided his branch over an alleged £179,000 shortfall has been denied compensation.

Jayakanthan Sivasubramaniam is the fifth known postal worker to have died by suicide after getting caught up in the scandal, according to The Times.

In a letter to his widow, shown to the newspaper, the Post Office said: “The relevant contract was held by the company and not [the wife] and therefore the Horizon Shortfall Scheme [HSS] does not extend to her claim.”

It added: “The panel has no reason to doubt that the audit and what it uncovered had a profound impact on Mr Jayakanthan [sic] and resulted in him sadly taking his own life.”

The claims panel, which the government and Post Office say is independent, said it was “sympathetic” to the widow but said that it concluded that the “discrepancies identified at the audit were not Horizon shortfalls”.

Kevan Jones, the Labour MP, told The Times the case revealed a “total lack of compassion” and called for it to be reopened.

A Post Office spokesman said: “We recognise that the claim made relates to truly tragic circumstances. “Every single claim is assessed by an independent panel before it recommends an outcome, and that offer can rightly be disputed.”

Next week, the public inquiry examining how more than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongfully prosecuted is set to restart.

The latest tape, unearthed by the broadcaster, concerned a meeting which took place on August 11 2014, just over six months before Post Office executives were grilled by the House of Commons’s business and skills committee.

Ron Warmington and Ian Henderson, the investigators from Second Sight were in attendance – along with the Post Office’s Belinda Cortes-Martin, who headed up Project Sparrow – a code name given to the organisation’s work with the forensic accountants.

‘A fishing expedition’

In the recording, Ms Cortes-Martin is heard accusing the investigators of going on “a fishing expedition” and using “emotional language” when talking about sub-postmasters being sent to prison.

Mr Henderson is heard saying: “What had been agreed was that we would be provided with the entire email records for the post office team that potentially would’ve had some contact with whatever was going on in the basement in 2008… but for some reason, we’ve never progressed much beyond that point.”

Ms Cortes-Martin then responded with: “So Ian, there is an answer to that question, and that is you have been provided with a significant amount of email traffic. However, there is…”

“Of the wrong date,” Mr Warmington interrupts.

Ms Cortes-Martin continues: “…an issue about the extent to which it is appropriate for us to send people’s inbox… which potentially contains all sorts of information that Second Sight have no right to have access to…what we can’t do is to enable you to draw through massive, massive extraneous emails. That’s a fishing exhibition.”

At another point in the tape, Mr Warmington discusses convicted sub-postmasters, saying:  “If you want to help the applicants, what the applicants need is an answer to the fundamental question: why was I accused of theft, dragged away… literally in handcuffs, my life was trashed.”

Ms Cortes-Martin responds: “Ron, can we just keep the language not emotional?”

Mr Henderson and Ms Vennells both appeared before the committee hearing in 2015 – where Mr Zahawi accused the Post Office chief executive of being “obstructive” to Second Sight’s independent investigation.

It followed Mr Henderson’s claims that he had never received emails dated back to 2008.

Ms Vennells said the Post Office had “shared whatever information was appropriate”.

In a statement to ITV News, Ms Cortes-Martin said: “I will be giving evidence to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry on May 7 and will answer any questions put to me then. It would be inappropriate for me to answer any questions prior to the hearing.”

Both Mr Henderson and Mr Warmington said they could not comment on the recording as they had been designated core participants in the inquiry and had undertaken confidentiality agreements.