Post Office Paula Vennells Angela van den Bogerd

Mr Bates vs The Post Office: This is where Paula Vennells and Angela van den Bogerd are now

There are calls for Paula to hand back her CBE

4 months ago

When the first episode of ITV’s latest drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office aired on New Year’s Day, viewers claimed they felt sick after seeing the show. Based on true-life events, the series shares the story of thousands of Post Office workers whose lives were destroyed after they were accused of stealing and fraud— when it was actually a computer error causing inconsistencies in the Post Offices’ accounts.

Paula Vennells was Chief Executive Office of Post Office Limited from 2012, and at the helm of the company when hundreds of innocent t sub-postmasters and postmistresses were prosecuted for false accounting and theft. So, in case you’re wondering where she and her HR exec Angela van den Bogerd are now, here’s all you need to know about their life after the High Court case:

So, what happened to Paula Vennells after the Post Office scandal?

Credit: Rob Pinney/LNP/Shutterstock

Paula is now 64 and stepped down from her role as CEO of the Post Office before the scandal fully broke. However, she remained on multiple boards until 2021, when she announced: “It is obvious that my involvement with the Post Office has become a distraction from the good work undertaken by the boards I serve. I have therefore stepped down with immediate effect from all my board positions.”

When Paula left her job at the Post Office she received a £400,000 bonus and a CBE for “services to the Post Office and charity” in the 2019 New Year’s Honours List, which in light of ITV’s drama many people – including MP Kevan Jones – have called for her to hand back.

After the Post Office, Paula went on to work for Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, but later quit for “personal reasons”.

And what happened to Angela van den Bogerd after the Post Office scandal?

Angela Van den Bogerd had a 33-year-long career at the Post Office as was appointed Business Improvement Director in 2018. According to reports, Angela had been dealing with complaints about the Horizon computer system since 2010 and “sat on a working group to deal with scandal since 2014”.

When the Post Office scandal reached the High Courts in 2019, the judge singled out Angela and said she “did not give me frank evidence, and sought to obfuscate matters, and mislead me”. Angela stepped down from her role at the Post Office following the trial but just a year later became the Head of People at the Football Association of Wales (FAW).

However, Angela’s reputation followed her and a Welsh MP called for the FAW CEO Jonathan Ford to remove her from the role. Angela left the position in March 2021 just months after she was appointed.

According to Angela’s LinkedIn, she hasn’t undertaken another role since she left the FAW but still describes herself as an “accomplished” HR leader on her profile.