Computer bug said I’d ‘lost’ £27,000
PAMELA Stubbs was suspended and stripped of her post office after glitches in the new Horizon IT system claimed she had ‘lost’ £27,000.
The 71-year-old was never told bosses privately suspected losses at Barkham Post Office in Berkshire were ‘related’ to problems with the computer software.
When Mrs Stubbs refused to pay the money she was kicked out of the business she had run for 23 years, including ten by herself after her husband died. The pensioner, from Wokingham, was sent a bill every month for her ‘debt’, and the Post Office even said it would take a cut of her earnings from any future jobs.
A criminal investigator came round to interview her, but despite being unable to prove she had taken the money, the business was never returned to her.
Yesterday Mrs Stubbs said she was ‘thrilled’ with the £58million settlement, but wants former boss Paula Vennells answer for her actions. She said: ‘She has squandered taxpayer’s money and it was covered up for years. I think it’s outrageous.
‘I would like to see Paula Vennells apologise. She has crept out of the back door and has held herself aloof from everything. It doesn’t work too well with her church background.
‘Government ministers too have stood back. They have allowed the Post Office to throw away tens of millions of pounds.
How can they do that without any comment?’