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Sent: 27 June 2006 14:31
To: ‘rmorgan@
Ce: Tom Beezer
Subject: Post Office Limited v Castleton
Attachments: DOC_1180761.PDF; NOTE_1173514.DOC; NOTE_1176338.DOC;
LETTER_1180724.D0C
Dear Richard,
I refer to our previous discussions in relation to the above claim, which has now been fixed for
trial to start in the week commencing 4 December 2006.
(1) Witnesses of fact
Our proposed witnesses of fact are currently:
Cath Oglesby, P.O.
John Jones, P.O.
Helen Rose, P.O.
Andrew Wise, P.O.
Ann Chambers, Fujitsu.
Gareth Jenkins, Fujitsu.
We will also have one or two expert witnesses on the IT and accountancy side.
You have already reviewed the Witness Statements of Cath Oglesby, John Jones and Helen
Rose that we filed in support of the application to set aside the default judgment on the
counterclaim. Do you think we should simply rely on them in the main claim, or file second
Statements just deleting reference to default judgments on the counterclaim?
Mr Castleton has served a reply to our request on the Defence and Part 20 claim (copy
attached). Our IT evidence of fact (which will come from Andrew Wise, Ann Chambers and
Gareth Jenkins) needs to deal with the points raised in the reply.
You will recall that Fujitsu's Horizon System Helpdesk (HSH) run the technical side of Horizon
for the P.O. We met Fujitsu recently who were able to explain in convincing technical detail
why Castleton's assertions about the IT amount to hot air. In particular, Gareth Jenkins
(Distinguished Engineer) was both confident and knowledgeable about Horizon and I think he
would make a good witness, albeit he was not involved at the time with Castleton's case. Ann
was briefly involved at the time and her statement will be shorter. She has not given evidence
before and I suspect she will probably be more nervous. We also met Andrew Wise who worked
at the relevant time for NBSC (the P.O's helpline for subpostmasters). I attach just for your
information a copy of notes of those meetings. The key points we need to flesh out in Gareth's
statement in particular is:
1. Even if Castleton experienced computer problems (which is not admitted, but is neither here
nor there), this would not cause losses at his branch i.e the losses were real not fake; and
2. Double entry bookkeeping - for every transaction recorded electronically on Horizon, there
would be a physical receipt e.g giro receipt, cheque or cash etc which Castleton would have
sent to the relevant organisation to be counted. If they didn't tally with what was inputted into
Horizon, this would have been picked up and an error notice would be generated. If Castleton's
computers were malfunctioning and recording wrong numbers you'd expect this to be pricked
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up centrally when the receipts are counted.
What I propose to do now is prepare first drafts of Andrew Wise, Ann Chambers and Gareth
Jenkins Witness Statements and discuss them with you before they are finalised.
Finally, would it help if I sent to you a complete list of the documents we have disclosed and the
documents that Castleton has so far disclosed? These are voluminous, but you're welcome to
see them.
(2) Timetable
The Order dated 9 March 2006 provides that disclosure had to take place by 18 May,
inspection 1 week later i.e.. by 25 May and Witness Statements to be exchanged on 14 July.
It is only today that we have received part, but not all, of Mr Castleton's disclosure. Even if we
receive the remainder shortly, we are about 6 weeks behind the Court timetable, so we will
probably need to seek an extension of time to serve Witness Statements by a further 6
weeks or so from 14 July and with consequential amendments to the remainder of the Court
timetable. I have raised this with Castleton's solicitors today (copy letter attached, just for
information).
(3) Mediation
The court timetable provided for the parties to mediate before disclosure, but in May Castleton's
solicitors instead said they would only mediate afterwards. They have not mentioned this
subject since disclosure and I will pick this up with them.
Finally, just a note that I will be away from the office on 4 to 6 July and 17 to 21 July.
Kind regards.
Stephen Dilley
Solicitor
for and on behalf of Bond Pearce LLP
Please note our new contact details from 8 May 2006 as set out above.
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