Post Office chairman Tim Parker QUITS before inquiry into IT scandal

Post Office chairman QUITS a week before inquiry opens into IT scandal that saw hundreds of postmasters wrongly convicted of fraud and theft

• Tim Parker will leave role in the autumn, the Post Office announced on Monday
• Comes just a week before inquiry will hear testimony from postmasters wrongly convicted of stealing from their own tills
• Mr Parker agreed to a strategy of aggressively pursuing postmasters in court 

The Post Office chairman who was known as the ‘Prince of Darkness’ due to his alleged zeal for embarking on job cuts has stepped down just days before the inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal is due to begin. 

Tim Parker, 66, who was said to be worth £247million in the 2018 rich list, will leave his role in the autumn, Sky News reported. 

News of Mr Parker’s departure comes just a week before retired high court judge Sir Wyn Williams will hear testimony from some of the 3,000 postmasters who were wrongly convicted of stealing from their own tills. 

It instead turned out that computer glitches were to blame for the financial shortfalls.  

Along with the then chief executive Paula Vennells, who was in charge of the Post Office from 2012 to 2019, Mr Parker agreed to the strategy of aggressively pursuing postmasters through the courts. 

The Post Office, which is owned by the Government, eventually conceded and agreed to compensate victims. 

Tim Parker, 66, who was said to be worth £247million in the 2018 rich list, will leave his role as chairman of the Post Office in the autumn. Above: Mr Parker with the then Post Office Chief Executive Paula Vennells in 2016

It warned last month that it would need Government help to give financial remedies to all 2,500 postmasters who have applied for compensation. 

The Government has since set aside £1billion to cover the cost. 

Mr Parker, who was forced to step down as the chairman of the National Trust last year, later apologised for what he called ‘historical failings’ and said he was ‘sincerely sorry on behalf of the Post Office’.

Mr Parker began his role at the Post Office in 2015. He is known in the City as the Prince of Darkness’ for the gusto with which he embarked on job cuts in previous roles.

Whilst chief executive of Clarks Shoes in the 1990s, he presided over a restructuring which led to the closure of 20 factories. 

He later became the boss of the AA, where he reportedly arrived in a Porsche to sack factory workers. 

For his role at the Post Office, Mr Parker was paid £75,000 but has donated his salary to charity in recent years. This figure was reduced to £19,200 in 2018 when he cut his hours further. 

Mr Parker is still chairman of Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service.  

A Post Office spokesperson said: ‘Tim Parker’s second term as chairman will conclude in the autumn with the Department of Business, as the shareholder of Post Office, conducting the search for his successor.

News of Mr Parker’s departure comes just a week before retired high court judge Sir Wyn Williams will hear testimony from some of the 3,000 postmasters who were wrongly convicted of stealing from their own tills

‘The chairman is focused on helping the executive team reset the Post Office as a commercial retailer fulfilling a UK-wide social purpose as well as ensuring that full and fair compensation is paid to people affected by the historical Horizon IT scandal.    

The Post Office’s current chief executive, Nick Read, told MPs last month that the Government would have to step in to help his organisation provide compensation for claimants.    

Remuneration has so far been offered to less than a third (777) of the 2,500 postmasters who applied for it, but Mr Read has warned that the Post Office will need Government help to ensure everyone eligible is properly compensated.

‘The Post Office itself doesn’t have the financial resources to compensate a miscarriage of justice of this scale,’ he told the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee. 

The postal service had set aside £153million so postmasters could sue the organisation, it was reported in March last year – as the state-owned business’ annual report revealed it had been plunged £307million into the red. 

The Government – the Post Office’s only shareholder – has pledged that it will foot the bill for the final compensation payments to the wrongly convicted workers. 

The Post Office’s current chief executive, Nick Read, told MPs last month that the Government would have to step in to help his organisation provide compensation for claimants 

The 555 postmasters who exposed the scandal with a successful group action in the High Court had won a legal settlement of £58million – but after legal fees they were left with less than £20,000 each for their years of hurt.  

In total, 950 postmasters were prosecuted for a variety of charges from 1999, but many of these cases were later linked to problems in the Horizon computer system.

Some of the postmasters were sent to prison for false accounting and theft. So far, 72 convictions have been overturned.

Mr Read said that 66 of those people who have seen their convictions overturned have applied for an interim £100,000 payment designed to ‘bridge the gap’ until a full settlement can be reached, Mr Read said.

The Post Office has paid out interim payments to 57 of these.

‘As soon as (convictions) have been overturned … the Post Office will be paying those interim payments within 28 days,’ said business minister Paul Scully.

But the Post Office is yet to be able to contact 127 of the 736 former postmasters whose convictions were linked to Horizon.

‘It is my intention that we do give full and final compensation of all the victims of the past and their families,’ Mr Read said.

He added: ‘There is an enormous amount of complexity associated with making sure we get absolutely right how we compensate those postmasters.

‘And most importantly that it’s full, it’s fair and it’s final.’

Hundreds of subpostmasters were sacked or prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 after reported shortfalls which were eventually attributed to a glitch in IT system rolled out by the Post Office in 1999 (file photo)

Hundreds of subpostmasters had been sacked or prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 after reported shortfalls which were eventually attributed to a glitch in an IT system rolled out by the Post Office in 1999.

The Post Office spent £32million denying any fault with their IT system and even bullied postmasters into pleading guilty to crimes they knew they had not committed.  

The Post Office has since apologised to postmasters and the Government has launched a judge-led public inquiry, which held its first live session last year.

A Post Office spokesman said: ‘We are fully and transparently engaging with the Government’s statutory inquiry.’

Shortly before the committee hearing started, the Government pledged that it will foot the bill for the final compensation payments to the wrongly convicted workers.

The Post Office has said it is unable to cover the payments for the exonerated individuals but the Government – as its only shareholder – confirmed it will pay.

What was the Horizon computer system and how did it go wrong? 

Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds of postmasters were sacked or prosecuted after money appeared to go missing from their branch accounts (file image) 

Horizon, an IT system developed by the Japanese company Fujitsu, was rolled out by the Post Office from 1999.

The system was used for tasks such as transactions, accounting and stocktaking. However, subpostmasters complained about defects after it reported shortfalls – some of which amounted to thousands of pounds.  

Some subpostmasters attempted to plug the gap with their own money, even remortgaging their homes, in an attempt to correct an error.

Between 1999 and 2015, hundreds of subpostmasters were sacked or prosecuted due to the glitches. The ex-workers blamed flaws in the IT system, Horizon, but the Post Office denied there was a problem.

In case after case the Post Office bullied postmasters into pleading guilty to crimes they knew they had not committed.

Many others who were not convicted were hounded out of their jobs or forced to pay back thousands of pounds of ‘missing’ money.

The Post Office spent £32million to deny any fault in their IT system, before capitulating. 

However, the postmasters and postmistresses said the scandal ruined their lives as they had to cope with the impact of a conviction and imprisonment, some while they had been pregnant or had young children.

Marriages broke down, and courts have heard how some families believe the stress led to health conditions, addiction and premature deaths.

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