Now, Sami Sabet, who owned three post offices in Shoreham and Brighton, said he wants to see her dragged through the courts like he was.
The 68-year-old was among 736 postmasters convicted of theft and fraud due to the company’s faulty Horizon system.
Mr Sabet, who was diagnosed with severe PTSD and has suffered heart problems since his wrongful conviction, says the ordeal has taken years off his life.
The father-of-one admitted to stealing more than £50,000 after being told he would likely be sent to prison if he denied the theft.
Mr Sabet, an ex-engineer who was forced to take up jobs cleaning toilets in petrol stations after his wrongful conviction, said it is “about time” Ms Vennells handed back her CBE.
However, the former postmaster also wants to see those in charge at the Post Office at the time of the scandal hauled in front of a Crown Court judge and branded criminals, just as he and his colleagues were.
“I think it’s absolutely the right thing for Paula Vennells to hand back her CBE,” he said.
“It took the drama on TV and the petition the public submitted to force her to go. She should have done it much earlier.
“I wonder if this will be enough for the sub-postmasters who were convicted during her rein?
“It’s about time. They treated us like criminals, they called us criminals – but they are the criminals.
“I couldn’t get a good job because I was a criminal, couldn’t insure my home because I was a criminal; people didn’t want to know you anymore because you’re a criminal.
“Yet none of the bosses have been held accountable until now.
“I want to see those people suffer and put in front of a judge like we were, to suffer what we felt.
“I would like the Post Office to pay a lot so this never happens again.
“It’s not right. It’s unbelievable. We are the victims and yet still the Post Office is in control.”
On the experience of being accused of being a criminal and having his name dragged through the mud, Mr Sabet said: “It was absolutely torturous. It has taken about five years off my life, maybe more.
“It was like a pre-meditated murder from the Post Office. They knew what they were doing and some of us actually died.
“I want the proper and real compensation. I want to be able to live now as I would have been able to before. Somebody has to feel what we felt. Somebody has to be held to account.
“There were people in charge before Paula Vennells who knew what was going on. What about them?
“They continue to destroy our lives and they should be brought to justice and made to feel all of the things we felt.”
Though he hasn’t yet watched the ITV dramatisation of the Post Office scandal he lived through, Mr Sabet praised the TV show Mr Bates vs The Post Office for bringing the public’s attention to his and his cohort’s plight.
“I think it’s great,” he said. “It has caused outrage with everybody and everybody’s talking about it.
“More people seem to understand and sympathise with what we went through and even Rishi Sunak has stepped in.”
But despite his desire to see justice finally served after all these years, Mr Sabet, worries his ill health – brought on by the stress of his ordeal – may mean he never lives to see the culmination of the scandal.
“I’m worried I won’t see justice before I die,” he admitted.
“A lot of former postmasters have already died before they even knew what they were going to get.
“Some died with their names still not having been cleared.”
Mr Sabet was handed a suspended sentence of one year in prison and ordered to complete 180 hours of community service at Lewes Crown Court in 2009, after pleading guilty to stealing more than £100,000 from the Post Office in a bid to avoid jail.
“I was absolutely terrified of going to prison,” he said. “I didn’t know what would happen to my wife and daughter.
“People looked at me as a criminal who stole people’s money from the Post Office. They crossed the street to avoid me. It was incredible.”
Mr Sabet estimates that he lost around £2.8 million from his three Post Offices.
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