A former Post Office branch operator in Berkshire has been left "staggered" by remarks made during the Post Office scandal inquiry - with the firm's CEO admitting he was "surprised" by the scale of the issue. 

More 900 Post Office staff were wrongly accused of theft, fraud, and false accounting due to an IT system failure from 1999 to 2015. 

An ongoing inquiry into the issue has heard from the post firm's current CEO, Nick Read, who said he was “surprised” at the “scale” of interest from the police, after learning that 33 investigations into branches were being carried out in June this year.

The current boss was asked about the organisation’s response to the fact that 22 police forces were investigating Post Office branches.

Mr Nick Read said: “I think there was some surprise at the scale of requests in terms of the 22 law enforcement agencies and the 33 requests.

“I think we were of the opinion that it was in the ones and twos in terms of requests for information… the primary discomfort was the size and the number of the requests that were coming forward."

The comments left former Berkshire Post Office branch manager Pam Stubbs "staggered" by the company chief's ignorance. 

Pam Stubbs ran a branch in Barkham near Wokingham until she was suspended for false accounting - but she managed to clear her name after losing thousands of pounds due to scandal. 

Reacting to the CEO's comments, she said: "I have been gently saying to myself - because I try not to scream at the screen anymore - for someone who was paid a lot for this role, why didn't he know there was a problem with Horizon, why didn't he know anyone was being prosecuted." 

"I'm staggered."

She added: "I'm staggered that people don't know about it. But I shouldn't be because I have been involved since in 2001.

"I have had someone come up to me who said, 'I lived around the corner from your post office and I had no idea about this.'"

Elsewhere in the inquiry, Mr Read said that previous leaders may not have been “held to account” for being aware of problems with the Horizon system.

Mr Read said: “I think one of the themes that has emerged amongst colleagues still working within the organisation is that many of the leaders historically who have appeared before this inquiry appear not to have been held to account."

Former chief executive Paula Vennells is one of the senior members to have given evidence at the inquiry, during which she apologised to postmasters but denied there was a conspiracy to cover up the Horizon scandal.

Ms Stubbs said running a post office branch was a "joy" that she would love to return to - but not until the Post Office had been overhauled. 

She said: "Not in a million years would I go back at the moment.

"They took away everything that made a post office a joy to run.

"If they stopped making the central office team bigger and bigger, and if the present company paid for what they have done, then yes, I would go back."

The long-running inquiry into the issue has been gathering evidence of the failings of the system at the Post Office, after the convictions of hundreds of postmasters were quashed earlier this year.

The Post Office continues to use the system despite heavy criticism over the issues.

Thousands of Post Office subpostmasters said they have still witnessed unexplained problems with Horizon over the past four years, according to a recent survey.