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¢ Paper numbers: Investigation 3415
PENSION AND ALLOWANCE FRAUD
Name: Lisa Margaret Brennan NINO: if
Rank: Postal Officer Nationality r GRO!
Office: IC1
Age: 33 Years
Service: 12 Years 9 Months DOC: 18 September 1989
Wages: £253.45 per week
Retail Line Manager : Jan Mullin.
Suspended by Jan Mullin (Retail Line Manager) on Thursday 13 June 2002.
Magistrates Court: Liverpool
National Investigation Manager
These papers refer to a suspected Pension and Allowance over claim at the above
office and were raised on 30 April 2002 following a mainstream check at Lisahally.
Huyton is a Directly Managed Branch and the Branch Manager is Kate Rosenthal.
There are ..staff employed at the office, .. are full time and .. are part time. The office
uses the MUTE system and all staff have an individual date stamp allocated to
them.
The mainstream check was for weeks 41 to 45 inclusive of the accounting year 2001 -
2002. The following discrepancies were found, week 41 - £139.70 over claimed,
week 42 - £199.60 over claimed, week 43 - £165.97 over claimed, week 44 - £250.08
over claimed and week 45 - £299.89 over claimed. The suspected deliberate errors
for these weeks total £1010. Schedule can be found at Appendix B. A CS213 check
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was requested for weeks 46 to 49 inclusive and a pouch division was requested for
weeks 8 and 9 of the current cash account year. To date the pouch check from
Lisahally has not been returned. The pouches checked locally revealed no
discrepancies in week 8. The check for week 9 revealed that in the group 5 a voucher
with a value of £115.75 had been claimed but was not to hand. The branch manager
checked the pensions and allowances belonging to B date stamp for week 10. This
check revealed that a group 7 voucher with a value of £250.60 had been claimed on
31 May 2002 but was not to hand. This pouch has been sent on its course and will be
in Lisahally. The horizon user on all these transactions was LBROO1 and belonged to
the suspect offender named in the preamble of this report. (Copies of the 205A and
schedules can be found at Appendix B).
It was arranged to visit this office on Thursday 13 June 2002 and to speak to the Lisa
Margaret Brennan. It was also proposed to have the stock used by her to be audited.
I visited the office with Mr Anthony Frank Gardner on this date.
The audio tapes used during this interview summarised to Appendix B. A file copy
isatpages to, whilst further copies, together with copies of this report are at
Appendix C. The master tapes are being held in Liverpool, whilst working tapes are
at Appendix B. A transcription has been saved to computer disk and a hard copy
will be produced if and when necessary.
The interview with Ms Brennan concluded that she had been employed by the Post
Office for approximately 13 years. She had previously been a permanent member of
staff at Garston Branch office for 1 year, Woolton Branch Office for 4 years and for
the last seven years been permanent at Huyton. The outstanding period was spent
as a floating member of staff and will have worked at any office which required
staff. Ms Brennan works 30 hours per week and her normal days of attendance are
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. She also said that she worked the
occasional Saturday. However she did work on Friday 31 May 2002, when she had.
to “pay back “ her hours due to the office being closed on one of her normal
working days. Ms Brennan performed a full range of counter duties and admitted
that she had a competent knowledge of post office transactions and procedures. She
could explained how to pay out a pension and allowance voucher and the reversal
procedure if a mistake had been made. Ms Brennan explained that pension and
allowance vouchers were checked by counting the number of dockets and not
checking individual amounts against the number of vouchers. She also
demonstrated that if the mistake was not noticed and the correct amount had been
paid out, she would have surplus cash in her draw. Ms Brennan could not
remember the last time that she went on annual leave. The office records show that
she was on annual leave between 13 and 18 May 2002, which was during cash
account weeks 7 and 8. It was then explained to Ms Brennan that during the
checking of her stock, a discrepancy in her pension and allowances was found. The
auditor had found that a group 5 voucher for the sum of £26.30 had been claimed as
£226.30. She was asked how she had balanced the previous evening. Ms Brennan
replied that she had balanced within a couple of pounds. She was then asked for an
explanation for this £200 discrepancy. No explanation was provided. Ms Brennan
was then shown a number of horizon print outs relating to the discrepancies and
asked for an explanation (copies can be found at Appendix B). She could offer no
explanation for these discrepancies. Ms Brennan was then shown the 205a’s from
Lisahally relating to weeks 41 to 45. A number of discrepancies bearing the same
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modus operandi was read out to her and again she could offer no explanation. Ms
Brennan would only say that as she worked so fast that she was making mistakes
and that she had not taken the money. It was then put to her that if these mistakes
were due to working at a quicker rate, why did they only appear in the pension and
allowances and not in any of her other work. It was also said to her, if she had
depressed the key twice then the mistakes would always be the first number of any
voucher that she was paying out. A number of examples from the 205a’s were read
out to her, including one group 13 voucher for £35.05 being claimed as £135.05. Ms
Brennan was asked to explain why if the key had been depressed twice this voucher
was claimed as £135.05 and not £335.05. Ms Brennan could offer no explanation for
this.
In conclusion, Ms Brennan made no admissions to taking any money. She did
however agree that the discrepancies all bore B date stamp, which was the date
stamp allocated to her and her user code which was LBRO01. She also said that no
other member of staff knew her password and therefore they could not access her
system. Ms Brennan was suspended by the Jan Mullin Retail Line Manager.
An abridge version of this report and copies of all relevant documents has been sent
to the Retail Line Manager (Jan Mullin) and a further copy can be found at
Appendix C.
This report is submitted for the present position to be seen and for consideration as
to whether the evidence is sufficient to support a prosecution
S Bradshaw
June 2002
(=) Retail Network Office Lyceum Building 1 Bold Street Liverpool L1 4HQ