Ex-UK Post Office boss gives back a royal honor amid fury over hundreds of wrongful convictions

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — The former head of Britain’s state-owned Post Office is handing back a royal honor in response to fury over her role in a miscarriage of justice that saw hundreds of postmasters wrongfully accused of theft. Ex-chief executive Paula Vennells said she would relinquish the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire. More than 700 branch managers were convicted of theft or fraud between 1999 and 2015 because Post Office computers wrongly showed that money was missing from their shops. The real culprit was a defective accounting system called Horizon, but the Post Office maintained for years that data from Horizon was reliable. The British government is considering whether to offer a mass amnesty.