Post Office scandal: Bosses earned millions despite Horizon scandal

How a lot did the individuals working the Put up Workplace receives a commission whereas the flawed Horizon system was in place?

By wanting by way of the corporate accounts for the Put up Workplace and Royal Mail, the BBC has give you a determine – £19.4m over 24 years.

Earlier than 2012, Royal Mail and the Put up Workplace have been a part of the identical organisation – and its three successive chief executives, John Roberts, Adam Crozier and Dame Moya Greene, made a complete of £12.8m. All three of them are resulting from seem at Horizon Inquiry which resumes on 9 April.

From 2012 onwards, the chief executives of the separated Put up Workplace, Paula Vennells then Nick Learn, have made a complete of £6.5m.

That is a mean of lower than £1m a 12 months – in comparison with the £3.91m the common boss of Britain’s 100 largest listed firms earned in 2022.

It is an enormous sum in comparison with the wage of common employees, or for sub-postmasters nonetheless ready for compensation.

The Put up Workplace argues that it’s a very giant, complicated enterprise which has to compete with different organisations for expertise, and makes use of exterior consultants to advise on government pay. So who’re the Put up Workplace bosses and what did every of them earn?

Mr Learn, a former captain of Dragoons who had been chief government of Nisa Retail, joined in September 2019, a number of months after 550 sub-postmasters gained a dramatic Excessive Courtroom victory.

He agreed a a lot larger base wage than his predecessor, Ms Vennells, incomes £415,000 a 12 months in comparison with her £255,000.

Nevertheless, he has much less scope to earn bonuses – and people bonuses have fallen round £500,000 beneath the utmost he may have made due to the pandemic, the Horizon Inquiry, and the monetary efficiency of the enterprise.

Because of this has ended up incomes barely much less on common than Ms Vennells.

He returned £54,000 which was incorrectly paid for serving to the Inquiry to complete – it is nonetheless ongoing.

For 2022/23 he made a bonus of £137,000 out of the utmost £383,210 he may need hoped to earn.

In February, it emerged the Put up Workplace had requested authorities for permission to double his pay.

Ms Vennells took over as Put up Workplace managing director in 2010, and stayed within the high job till April 2019. This era noticed the prosecution of greater than 100 sub-postmasters, a failed mediation scheme, and the sub-postmasters’ courtroom case culminating in a victory within the Excessive Courtroom.

A component-time Church of England vicar, she turned one of the vital recognisable faces of the scandal, that includes prominently within the ITV drama Mr Bates vs. the Put up Workplace.

Ms Vennells earned £5.1m throughout her time on the helm of the Put up Workplace, peaking at £718,300 in 2018. That 12 months her base wage was £253,800 and he or she earned £390,800 in bonuses (plus pensions and different advantages).

By her attorneys, Ms Vennells issued the next assertion: “I stay actually sorry for the struggling brought about to sub-postmasters, their households and all these whose lives have been torn aside by being… wrongly prosecuted. I proceed to totally help and concentrate on co-operating with the Inquiry.”

Mr Crozier turned the Royal Mail’s chief government in 2003, following roles as boss of the Soccer Affiliation and the promoting company Saatchi and Saatchi.

He often drew headlines for his excessive wage – he earned as a lot as £3m in pay and bonuses in 2007-08, elevating the ire of unions protesting concerning the closure of 1000’s of Put up Workplaces.

He made a complete of £9.7m in pay and bonuses in his time at Royal Mail, in addition to a pension valued at £1.1m in 2008. From 2003 to 2009 the Put up Workplace secured greater than 400 convictions in England and Wales utilizing Horizon information, in keeping with proof launched to the Inquiry.

On the time the Put up Workplace was a part of Royal Mail, however had a separate board which Mr Crozier did not sit on. He mentioned in a press release: “Whereas I didn’t have any involvement within the Horizon situation throughout my time at Royal Mail, I really feel deeply sorry for these whose lives have been ruined by what occurred.”

He left unexpectedly in 2010 to turn out to be chief government of ITV.

Canadian Dame Moya took over in July 2010, and earned a complete of £1.88m earlier than the Royal Mail formally break up with the Put up Workplace.

Mr Smith briefly crammed in as managing director of the Put up Workplace earlier than Ms Vennells, from April to October 2010, earlier than transferring to chief buyer officer of Royal Mail. He was the one who greeted the conviction of Seema Misra, the Postmistress from Surrey who was wrongly jailed whereas pregnant, with the phrases “good information,” in keeping with proof submitted on the Horizon Inquiry. He was paid £636,000 in 2010-11.

Mr Cook dinner was Put up Workplace managing director from 2006 to 2010. He earned a complete of £3m in that point, together with £1.2m in his remaining 12 months. He was quoted by his native newspaper, the Milton Keynes Citizen saying he would “by no means forgive himself” for not understanding that a whole bunch of individuals have been being prosecuted whereas he was in cost. He mentioned he did not know there have been issues with Horizon till shortly earlier than he left.

In 2010, a long-term bonus scheme paid out to a lot of Royal Mail bosses, together with Mr Cook dinner. That 12 months the Put up Workplace convicted 58 individuals in England and Wales.

Mr Mills, a former HSBC banker who based the pioneering phone financial institution First Direct, joined as Put up Workplace chief government in 2002.

He earned a complete of £1.3m in pay and bonuses over 4 years, peaking at £816,000 within the 12 months he left, 2006, which included £486,000 compensation for lack of workplace.

Mr Roberts, who spent his entire profession on the Put up Workplace, was chief government for six years, a interval he described as a “rollercoaster experience”.

His time in workplace noticed the disastrous launch of Horizon and the short-lived rebrand to “Consignia”.

From 1999 to his retirement in 2002 he earned £1.2m. In his final 12 months he earned £225,852 together with advantages (with a final-salary pension on high). He and the finance director Jerry Cope each agreed to waive their wage will increase for 2001-2, citing the “perilous state” of the enterprise. The following 12 months he earned £503,000 which included £119,000 pay in lieu of discover.

John Roberts declined to remark. Alan Cook dinner, Dame Moya Greene, and David Smith didn’t reply to the BBC’s requests for remark.

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