Paula Vennells 'should be behind bars' says former Walsall subpostmaster who recalls arrest trauma

A former subpostmaster from Walsall who was wrongly accused of stealing £11,000 in 2009 has said the ex-CEO of the Post Office, Paula Vennells, should be prosecuted.

Jess Kaur, 52, owned a Post Office in Aldridge when she was arrested on suspicion of theft and charged with 36 offences in 2009.

The case was later thrown out, but not before she suffered a mental breakdown and attempted to take her own life.

Her story featured in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

Ms Kaur is one of many victims of the Horizon IT scandal who were watching the company's former boss answer to the public inquiry on Wednesday 22 May.

Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells giving evidence to the inquiry at Aldwych House, central London Credit: Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry/PA

Ms Vennells began her evidence to the Horizon IT Inquiry in central London on Wednesday by apologising to subpostmasters and their families.

She also twice broke down in tears as she answered questions from the inquiry.

After watching the inquiry, Ms Kaur said: "Like us - they should be prosecuted, they should be put behind bars. What we went through, they should go through the same.

"When she was crying, I just thought about myself and I thought about everyone else. We were all crying, we were all in tears.

"Nobody looked at our tears. Nobody wiped our tears for us. It was hell."

Ms Kaur says what annoys her the most about the Horizon IT inquiry is that those being questioned maintained they didn't know what was going on.

She said: "Every single person that's been in the inquiry doesn't recall anything. We could have said throughout our own investigations and prosecutions - that we don't recall doing this, we don't recall doing that.

"I just hope something good comes out of this. They put me through hell. They put me in a mental hospital. They even came to check if I was actually in that hospital."

During the inquiry, Ms Vennells apologised: “I would just like to say, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to do this, how sorry I am for all that subpostmasters and their families and others have suffered as a result of all of the matters that the inquiry is looking into.

“I followed and listened to all of the human impact statements and I was very affected by them.”

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