Inquiry hears former Post Office boss wrote of 'subbies with hand in the till'

A former boss of the Post Office sent an email to two staff members in 2009 telling them his instinct about the Horizon scandal was that "subbies with their hand in the till" were blaming the technology.

- Daniel Boffey

The message from Alan Cook, who was Paula Vennells's predecessor, came to light at a session of the Post Office Horizon inquiry in central London.

In the email to Mary Fagan, a former corporate affairs director at Royal Mail, and a second employee, Cook described a "steadily building nervousness about the accuracy of the Horizon system" at a time when the press were "on it".

He wrote: "My instincts tell that, in a recession, subbies with their hand in the till choose to blame the technology when they are found to be short of cash."

Cook did ask for the claims about Horizon to be examined, although he admitted to the inquiry that he did not recall receiving the findings before leaving in January 2010.

He also said he was unaware until the very last months of his time leading the Post Office as managing director that the organisation was independently prosecuting branch operators.

There were 160 prosecutions by the Post Office of branch operators during Cook's tenure from March 2006 to January 2010.