POL00044639
POL00044639
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION,
LEGAL
POLTD/0607/0108
OFFENCE
Theft
False Accounting
Name: Janet Louise Skinner
Rank: Subpostmisstress Identification 1
Code:
Office: North Bransholme Branch Code 174321
Age: Date of Birth:
Service: 2 years Date Service 27/05/2004
Commenced:
Personnel Printout: At Appendix: C
Nat Ins No:
Home Address:
Contract for Services 30" May 2006 on the authority of Diane Hoyles
Suspended:
To be prosecuted by: Royal Mail Group (including Post Office Ltd)
Designated Tony Utting , National Internal Crime &
Prosecution Authority: Investigation Manager
Discipline Manager: Vicky Harrison
Corporate Security Criminal Law
These papers refer to a shortage at North Bransholme Post Office on Tuesday
30" May 2006 and a subsequent audit carried out the following day.
Diane Hoyles, Rural Support Officer, was instructed to visit the branch and
verify the cash on hand. This was due to the cash team reporting an increase
in overnight cash holdings (ONCH) and requests to return excess cash not
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION, LEGAL
POL00044639
POL00044639
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION,
LEGAL
being actioned. As Mrs Hoyles identified a loss during this visit, an audit was
arranged for the following day to verify the exact loss at the branch.
Loss to Post Office Ltd £59,175.39
North Bransholme is a 4 counter position branch situated within an
independently owned general store selling groceries and confectionary. It is
located within an urban deprived area of Bransholme in Hull. Janet Skinner
currently has a temporary contract as Subpostmisstress of the branch after the
previous owners, United News Group, relinquished their franchise in May
2005. Miss Skinner employs 4 staff to assist in the running of the branch, all of
which, at some stage have had key holder responsibilities as part of their
duties.
Mrs Skinner has considerable experience of working and managing Post
Office Branches. Whilst employed by United News Group, Miss Skinner
worked at several of their branches in a managerial capacity, Dalsetter Rise,
Orchard Park and Bodmin Road being the last three.
Mrs Hoyles arrived at the branch on Tuesday 30" May 2006 at 13:00 hours,
accompanied by her colleague, Julia Stephenson. Mrs Hoyles explained the
reason for her visit to Miss Skinner, after which Miss Skinner took them into
the back room and explained that the cash would be £40,000 short. She
stated she did not know how the loss occurred but added she had suspicions
over a member of staff, Kathryn Ayres. Mrs Hoyles completed a statement
outlining the discussions that took place, which was read and signed by Miss
Skinner as a true account. A copy of this statement is associated in appendix
B.
Mrs Hoyles and Mrs Stephenson completed a check of the cash on hand and
confirmed a large shortage of around £54,000. Miss Skinner was suspended
from her duties and the keys were handed over. Mrs Hoyles arranged for a full
verification audit to be undertaken the following morning.
Before leaving the branch on Tuesday, Mrs Hoyles states that CVIT arrived to
deliver some pouches. After making further checks, Mrs Hoyles discovered
that despite concerns over the cash holdings of the branch being excessive
and the requests to return excess cash ignored, a remittance of £40,000 in
notes was attempted to be delivered. This delivery was refused by Ms Hoyles.
On Wednesday 31% May 2006 an audit took place at North Bransholme Post
Office. Paul Field was the Lead Auditor at which a loss of £59,175.39 was
recorded. A copy of the audit report is associated in appendix B.
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION, LEGAL
POL00044639
POL00044639
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION,
LEGAL
At 12.00 hours on Thursday 1° June, accompanied by Steve Bradshaw,
Investigation Manager, I interviewed Miss Skinner. This was started in the
Managers room at Bransholme DMB, however, due to a faulty tape machine,
the interview was conducted at Bransholme Police Station. Tape seals 043407
and 043409 were used on the faulty tapes and a notebook entry made. A copy
is associated in appendix B.
The interview recommenced at 13.27 hours. The interview was tape-recorded
and a tape summary has since been prepared, a copy of which is on pages
to of this file. Copies of CS001 and the working tapes 043366, 043367 and
043368 are associated in appendix B, and the CS003 associated in appendix
C within this file.
During the interview, Miss Skinner stated she had worked at Post Offices
since 1995 as an employee of United News Group. She stated that she had
considerable experience of transactions and procedures and was the first
Manager in Hull to migrate onto the Horizon system. She said she became a
contact point for others experiencing problems with the system and is very
confident in operating the equipment.
Miss Skinner stated that she understood the reason for completing a balance
at the branch and that all losses and gains were to be made good in
accordance with her contract as Subpostmisstress.
A recap of the events of the last 2 days was given and Miss Skinner
acknowledged this was a true account of events. The statement signed by
Miss Skinner was also read out and again Miss Skinner confirmed that she
signed this note and it was an accurate account of her comments.
Miss Skinner was asked about the shortage in the branch. She stated that she
knew the branch was carrying a large loss and that she inflated her cash to
enable her to produce a clear trading statement. She stated that the loss
started in January 2006 when completion of the balance revealed a shortage
in the accounts of £7,500. She stated that she could not find the money but
thought it was too high an amount to be an error.
Miss Skinner stated that her staff knew there was a large loss but she did not
question them about it. She stated that to conceal the loss, she added the
£7,500 onto the £10 and £20 denominations of her cash, as she did not have
the money to make good the loss. She stated she knew it was wrong to do
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION, LEGAL
POL00044639
POL00044639
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION,
LEGAL
this.
On the next branch trading statement in February 2006, Miss Skinner stated
that the loss had risen to £9,500. She again stated that this amount was
added to her cash figure spread over the £10 and £20 to conceal the loss.
Miss Skinner stated she has no idea how the amount rose to the present cash
loss of nearly £59,000. She stated that when the trading statement for period
2 was completed on Wednesday 24" May 2006, the loss was £40,253.85.
Miss Skinner has no idea how a further £20,000 has gone missing from her
branch in the space of 3 working days. Miss Skinner has stated that she has
not stolen the money and suspects a member of her staff although she has no
evidence of this.
Miss Skinner stated throughout the interview that she suspects Katherine
Ayres of being the perpetrator of this crime. She stated that she was warned to
watch Mrs Ayres by the last Manager at North Bransholme Post Office due to
previous irregularities in the branch accounts.
Miss Skinner stated that Mrs Ayres was always short changing customers by
large amounts. Due to the losses in the branch, the staff were assigned
individual stock units during which time the branch had minimal losses. Miss
Skinner stated that in November 2004, there was a loss of £1,400 in Mrs
Ayres stock unit. Mrs Skinner stated that Mrs Ayres could not make the
shortage good in full so they agreed for Mrs Ayres to pay back the money at
£10 or £20 a week, whatever she could afford. Mrs Skinner stated that Mrs
Ayres was to put the money in an empty white Lisahally pouch and make a
note on a piece if paper with the running total. Mrs Skinner said this pouch
was kept in the safe however, Mrs Ayres kept dipping into the cash when her
son came and requested to borrow some money.
Mrs Skinner stated that she instructed Mrs Ayres to add the £1,400 loss onto
her cash each and every week in order to conceal the loss.
Shortly after this loss, Mrs Ayres went! “I Miss Skinner stated that due to
being short staffed, the branch reverted to a shared stock unit, again
there were no high losses reported. When Mrs Ayres returned I J
Miss Skinner stated that they did not revert back to the individual stock units
due to the time it would take to set up. She stated that around Christmas time
2005, the losses started again, rising each month to the amount at the audit.
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION, LEGAL
POL00044639
POL00044639
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION,
LEGAL
Miss Skinner stated that she had been late a couple of mornings and the
customers had complained that the branch was not open at the scheduled
time of 8.30 hours. Due to this Miss Skinner stated that she gave Mrs Ayres a
full set of door keys to access the Post Office area and also a set of safe keys
and alarm codes. Miss Skinner stated this was due to Mrs Ayres living across
the road from the Post Office and ensuring the branch would be open on time.
Miss
Skinner then states that late opening was still a problem and the customers
were continuing to complain.
Miss Ski
Miss Skinner stated that her hours of work were Mon to Thurs 8.45 hours to
14.00 hours with Friday and Saturday off. She stated that Mrs Ayres would
have responsibility for opening and closing the Post Office with another set of
keys rotating between the other clerks, Colleen and Wendy. They would
assume responsibility on Mrs Ayres day off.
Miss Skinner stated that she was concerned on several occasions that she
would run out of cash and not be able to continue a service to the customers.
Miss Skinner stated that the week prior to the visit from Mrs Hoyles, she had to
contact a banking customer and request they make a deposit as the money at
the Post Office was extremely low. Miss Skinner also said that due to low
funds in the till, she conducted her own withdrawals from the ATM machine in
order to save her reserves for the customers
It was pointed out to Miss Skinner that the person she was warned about at
the start, who had shown a large loss and was failing to repay it, and who was
she suspected was stealing the money, was the person who had the full run of
the branch. Miss Skinner stated that she knows she is too trusting but did not
say anything, as she had no proof.
Miss Skinner states that she declared the total of the shortage in the cash
element of stock unit CC. This stock unit contains no cash or stock and is
rolled over inactively each week. Trading statement 2 for period ending May
24'" 2006 was shown to Miss Skinner. She stated that the figure of £40,000
shown on the cash line of stock unit CC was the shortage in the account on
that date. Miss Skinner states that a further £20,000 has disappeared since
this date without any explanation. Copies of the Trading Statements are
associated in appendix B of this file.
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION, LEGAL
POL00044639
POL00044639
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION,
LEGAL
Miss Skinner confirms that the 6 months on individual stock units and the 6
months of Mrs Ayres!” ~~ were the best in terms of balancing apart
from the £1,400, which was attributed to Mrs Ayres. Miss Skinner accepts that
to revert back to individual stock units was only a matter of transferring a small
amount of cash and stock which would takes minutes as the stock units were
already created. Miss Skinner acknowledged that she has made no attempts
to put any procedures in place to either stop the losses or identify the
perpetrator. Therefore the losses have continued to grow at an alarming rate.
Miss Skinner was asked if she would give permission to undertake a voluntary
search of her home address. She stated that we could do any search we
wanted but only when her children were not at home. Miss Skinner added that
her children are currently off school and she would not give permission till next
week. A notebook entry was made of this, which Miss Skinner signed as an
accurate account. Copy associated in appendix B of this file. Miss Skinner
agreed to give bank authority.
The interview was concluded at15: 42 hours. The master tapes of this
interview are now held at Capstan House, Salford Quays. A notebook entry of
the tape times and seal numbers was made. A copy is associated in appendix
B of this file.
In order to clarify a number of issues raised by Miss Skinner in relation to the
possible involvement of her staff in the loss, interviews were arranged and
statements subsequently taken from the counter staff Colleen Kates, Theresa
Holmes, Wendy Lyell and Katherine Ayres.
The most significant points raised being:
> Staff were taking calls from the cash centre as the planned order had been
changed by Miss
Skinner. When the notes were checked there was between £2,000 and
£3,000 on hand instead
of the £70,000 plus that the cash centre expected to be on hand.
> Miss Lyell was warned by Miss Skinner that the cash centre would probably
be phoning and to
fob them off by saying a large withdrawal was expected.
> Staff were instructed by Miss Skinner not to count cash to do a cash
declaration but to print off
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION, LEGAL
POL00044639
POL00044639
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION,
LEGAL
a snapshot and enter this cash amount as being on hand. The reason given
for doing this was
branch trading would only give you a true figure of how the office was
balancing once a month
when the trading period ends.
> The branch was close to running out of cash on a regular basis and staff
had to contact
business customers to request they bank some money. Miss Lyell
regularly had to go to Kwik
Save and swop pound coins for notes to enable the Post office to continue
a service.
> All staff take turns in key rotation.
> Miss Lyell was taking phone calls from the landlord’s secretary, Naomi,
about the non-payment
of rent. Miss Lyell states she was told by Naomi £10,000 was owed with
cheques forwarded by
Miss Skinner bouncing.
> Miss Skinner told Miss Lyell that the bailiffs recently removed the furniture
from her house for
non payment of council tax.
> Miss Lyell states that Miss Skinner had an addiction for scratchcards.
Handfuls were taken from
the dispenser at a time and scratched. She spoke to Miss Skinner about
this who denied she
had a problem.
»>Mrs Ayres was regularly told to go home early around 5pm on a Wednesday
despite being paid
till later, leaving Miss Skinner to complete the balance with assistance from
her daughter Toni.
»>Miss Skinner contacted Mrs Ayres at home to ask for her password. The
reason given for this
was to enable Miss Skinner to serve on one terminal whilst printing reports
on another.
> Miss Lyell states that her former employer Mark Ombler, owner of the retail
side, was chasing
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION, LEGAL
POL00044639
POL00044639
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION,
LEGAL
Miss Skinner for National Lottery commission due. In May 2006, Miss
Skinner paid £1,100 in
commission and £2,200 in rent in cash. This money was given to Miss Lyell
by the shop
assistant to process through girobank.
> Staff were unaware that stock units BB and CC were still in operation after
they reverted back
to a shared stock unit.
> Miss Lyell and Mrs Ayres state they worked alongside Miss Skinner on a
Tuesday and
Wednesday afternoon respectively.
>Mrs Ayres states that when she left her stock unit it was £700 over. When
she returned the next
day Miss Skinner had removed the £700 as her stock was short.
Consequently, Mrs Ayres stock
unit ended up showing a loss of £700 which she was told she would have to
repay.
»>Mrs Ayres paid back £500 in May 2006 from the loss in her individual stock.
> Mrs Ayres lent Miss Skinner money to pay staff wages on 3 occasions.
Some of this has yet to
be repaid.
> Staff not informed of balancing results or asked to contribute to any losses
since branch
trading.
> Miss Skinner requested staff remove cash from the till to pay wages and
also leave cash on her
desk to be collected after the branch had closed.
Copies of the statements are associated in appendix A of this file.
Throughout the interview, Miss Skinner made full admissions to increasing the
cash on hand declared at the branch and falsifying each and every cash
account document since November 2004. She did this by adding the shortage
onto the £10 and £20 notes total.
Miss Skinner lives with her partner and two children. She has a mortgage of
£95,000 on her property in her name only. She has recently increased her
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION, LEGAL
POL00044639
POL00044639
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION,
LEGAL
mortgage as part of a settlement to her ex partner. Miss Skinner also has a
car loan of £13,500 and a personal loan of £2,000.
The Post office is Miss Skinner’s only source of income. Her partner, who has
lived with Miss Skinner for the last 12 months, was unemployed until recently.
On examination of her bank statements received from The Halifax, it was
noted that Miss Skinner has almost £2,000 of direct debits on her account
each month. Also noted was that on June 7th, an amount of £2,475 was
debited from her account for Teletext. I have since been informed that this
was in respect of a holiday. Copies of bank statements are associated in
appendix C.
From statements taken and also information received via Inland Revenue and
credit checks, it appears that Miss Skinner has severe financial problems. No
Inland Revenue return has been received for 2004/05 periods. Miss Skinner is
being chased for payment from the landlord with on one occasion, the office
being locked by the proprietor. Miss Skinner has made several applications
for credit since her suspension. It is also noted that Miss Skinner has 3 county
court judgements against her between 2001 and 2002. These are made in
her married name of Janet Louise Hakim. Copies of these documents are
associated in appendix C.
Miss Skinner suspects that an employee, Katherine Ayres, is the perpetrator of
the theft of over £59,000. Her theory behind this is due to the losses in the
branch and notably in Mrs Ayres’s individual stock unit. Also the warning
given to Miss Skinner from the previous manager regarding Mrs Ayres gives
her cause for concern. Despite this, Miss Skinner made no attempt to address
the losses.
After discussing the situation with Mrs Ayres, I was informed that her father
passed away 12 months ago and she has inherited some money, which was
released from probate earlier this year. This is how she was able to repay
£500 of the loss, as she was being mithered for it by Miss Skinner. Mrs Ayres
is approaching retirement age and is a frail looking lady. She lives in a
modest abode with her husband and son.
Mrs Ayres stated that her son:
Although Mrs Skinner states she has not stolen the money, I do not suspect
the staff of having any involvement in this case. I have no reason to doubt the
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION, LEGAL
POL00044639
POL00044639
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION,
LEGAL
honest, integrity and reliability of these witnesses’s.
The horizon data has been requested and it was noted that several high value
transfers were made into stock units BB and CC. On January 9" 2006 two
transfers were made from AA stock into BB for £8000 and CC for £15,000.
These transactions were undertaken on the user code belonging to Wendy
Lyell. The schedule known as DM6 was shown to Miss Lyell who stated she
has not performed these transfers and at the time stated, 13:20 hours she
would have been on her lunch break.
On Thursday 25 May 2006, the user code belonging to Theresa Holmes,
THOO001, has been attached to stock unit CC and a cash declaration was
made resulting in a discrepancy of £38,010.67. A schedule showing these
details, known as DM7 was shown to Miss Holmes. Miss Holmes denies
undertaking these transactions and stated that she did not know the branch
still had a stock unit CC.
On Wednesday May 24" 2006, the user code belonging to Katherine Ayres,
KAA001, has been attached to CC stock unit and £20,000 in cash was
transferred in from stock unit BB. A series of reports and cash declarations
were then undertaken resulting in a declared cash on hand total of £40,253.85
being entered when there was actually no cash held in stock unit CC. A
schedule showing these entries known as DM8 was shown to Mrs Ayres. Mrs
Ayres denied undertaking these transactions and stated at the time they were
carried out, between 17:35 and 17:50 hours, she was not on duty at the
branch after being told by Miss Skinner to go home at 17:00 hours. Mrs Ayres
also pointed out that when she left at 17:00 hours, Miss Skinner asked her to
leave her screen logged on so she could run off the branch trading summaries
and reports of her terminal. Copies of exhibits DM6/7/8 are associated in
appendix B of this file.
In conclusion,
>Miss Skinner has made full admissions to false accounting in respect of
inflating her cash on
hand from November 2004 to May 2006.
> Miss Skinner made no admissions to the theft of £59,175.39 and stated she
had no idea where
the cash had gone.
»Although Miss Skinner has made reference to Mrs Ayres being involved in
the loss, I have found
no evidence to back up this claim.
>It appears that Miss Skinner is in severe financial trouble. She was behind in
her rent and had
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION, LEGAL
POL00044639
POL00044639
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION,
LEGAL
recently had a visit from the bailiffs. Miss Skinner has also recently doubled
the mortgage on
her property.
>Miss Skinner instructed her staff to lie on the phone to calls from her landlord
and the cash
centre.
> Miss Skinner also instructed the staff to undertake incorrect cash
declarations.
>Miss Skinner altered the planned orders each week and also was the only
person to complete
the branch trading each month.
>Miss Skinner knew staff user codes and passwords
»>Miss Skinner made no mention to the staff about losses at the branch
»>Miss Skinner did not contact the Network Business Support Centre or seek
guidance from the
retail line concerning the level of losses.
>Miss Skinner admits moving the losses to inactive stock unit CC
On numerous occasions Miss Skinner made reference to a search being
undertaken at her home, stating that she would have no problem with this
taking place. When this was discussed in detail, Miss Skinner would only
agree to the search when her children had returned to school a few days later.
I discussed this with PC Brown at Bransholme Police Station to request their
assistance. They were reluctant to get involved at this stage of the enquiry and
refused to search the property at this time due to lack of manpower.
There are a number of business and procedural weaknesses that have
contributed to the loss occurring.
> Despite the branch holding excess cash, the Subpostmisstress was
allowed to phone up and
increase her planned cash orders.
> Requests to return excess cash held back to the cash centre were
ignored without any follow
up procedures to ensure the request had been followed.
> On the day of the audit, a delivery of £40k was made and refused by
Diane Hoyles, Rural
Support Officer. The business is still sending cash to a branch that is
severely over target and
has ignored requests to return excess cash.
>The systems currently in place did not cause sufficient concern for an
audit to be scheduled
despite the cash being inflated by a significant amount over a period of
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION, LEGAL
POL00044639
POL00044639
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION,
LEGAL
5 months.
Loss to Post Office LTD £59,175.39
NPAOO1 and CS033 have been completed and copies are included in
appendix C.
An interim copy of the discipline report has been e mailed to Casework
Management on 16 June 2006 with the full report forwarded on August 4"
2006.
I have retained the master tapes and all original documentation.
This report is submitted for the present position to be noted and for
consideration as to whether the evidence is sufficient to support a prosecution.
Diane Matthews
Investigation Manager
Broadway, Salford Quays, Manchester, M41 6FW
POST OFFICE LTD CONFIDENTIAL: INVESTIGATION, LEGAL