AN MS WHO backed calls for Paula Vennells to be stripped of her CBE has reacted after the ex-Post Office boss agreed to voluntarily renounce the honour.

Janet Finch-Saunders, MS for Aberconwy, had written a letter to Sir Christopher Stephen Wormald, the chair of the forfeiture committee. In the letter she gave her backing to a 1.2 million strong petition calling for Ms Vennells to lose her rank.

The former chief executive, who ran the Post Office while it routinely denied there was a problem with its Horizon IT system, was appointed a CBE in December 2018.

Mrs Finch-Saunders said: "Paula Vennells should never have accepted a CBE for services to the Post Office in the first place.

“I hope that progress is made this week on delivering justice for all those wrongly prosecuted, and that full compensation follows."

Mrs Finch-Saunders knows Alan Bates and his partner Suzanne. Mr Bates was a sub-postmaster at a post office in Craig-y-Don, now occupied by St David's Hospice charity shop. 

ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which concluded last Thursday evening (January 4), highlighted the shocking true story of one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history in which hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters and postmistresses were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a defective IT system.

Mr Bates (portrayed by Toby Jones) was central to that story and spent 20 years campaigning for people to hear the truth and even took the Post Office to court.

Mrs Finch-Saunders said: "I’ve known Alan and Suzanne from running my business in Craig y Don years ago, and always found them to be hard working, friendly, and very much a part of our local community. It therefore came as great shock when the Post Office closed, and to realise as a result of the drama that Alan took on, not only his own fight, but the battle faced by so many other Sub Postmasters, some of whom were imprisoned through no fault of their own, and others driven to such anguish that they committed suicide.

“I have always believed in the law of this land, and that justice must now be served for all those caught up in this horrific scandal, be it through judicial or Parliamentary action.

“As a Member of the Welsh Parliament I do not have influence over the judiciary, nor Westminster, however, I shall add my voice to those seeking justice for the huge number of victims affected.”

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Hundreds of innocent postmasters who were wrongfully convicted due to the Horizon scandal will have their names cleared under new laws to be brought forward by the government.

Once the legislation is passed and convictions have been quashed, individuals will be entitled to at least £600,000 in compensation to rebuild their lives.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on January 10 2024: "This is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in this country’s history, with hundreds of people having their lives ruined and reputations dragged through mud. Too many still have wrongful convictions tied to their name, and we cannot continue to fail them.

"We must do everything we can to exonerate and compensate these innocent people, and make sure they finally get the justice they deserve."