POL00089057
POL00089057
POST OFFICE LIMITED
REGINA
v
GRANT IAN ALLEN
CHARGING ADVICE
The Prosecution Case
1. This case concerns an investigation into audit shortages at
the Winsford Post Office, Cheshire. It was run by Grant Ian
Allen, the subpostmaster through a franchise agreement
between POL and Allco Ltd, of which Mr. Allen had been a
director. He employed a number of staff at the branch, who
all used individual stock units.
2. The audit was conducted on the 8 February 2012. Shortly
after it commenced, Mr. Allen admitted to Mr. Cross, the
auditor that his stock unit would be about £10000 short. Due
to financial difficulties he had been unable to make good the
shortages, and so inflated the cash on hand accordingly. He
hoped for an “over scale” payment from POL to make good
these shortages. He refused to sign a record of conversation
(RC/1) to this affect, but subsequently confirmed the
conversation as correct in his interview.
3. The audit identified an overall loss of £17,811.49. Of this,
£4645.24 had previously been settled centrally, although this
remained unpaid. Mr. Allen explained that it related to costs
incurred during branch relocation and was a debt due to the
building contractors ROMEC, but that he was in dispute
with them over the quality of the work conducted. His
particular stock unit KK had a cash shortage of £11705 and
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t
os
the remainder of the audit discrepancy was found in the
postage, cash and stock spread across the other 8 stock units
and in due course was not seen as attributable to him.
. In his interview on the 19% April 2012, Mr Allen stated as
follows:
i) he took over in November 2009
ii) it cost him £100000 to relocate in March 2010
iii) in the first 4 weeks there were wiring problems with
the terminals, which he believed meant Horizon
was not sending out (Polling) data.
iv) in that period a £3000 discrepancy arose in the
accounts which could not otherwise be explained
v) henever made good that loss believing a transaction
correction would resolve the issue in due course
vi) in each subsequent balancing period, anything other
than insignificant discrepancies of £50 or less were
added onto this original £3000 loss
vii) all such discrepancies were transferred across to his
stock unit
viii) he inflated his cash on hand to achieve a balance
putting the approximate amount on the unusable
notes line from April 2010 to February 2012
ix) I when cash was checked independently during
migration to Horizon online in 2010 he reintroduced
cash already counted into his stock unit to make it
balance
x) he denied stealing any money from the Post Office
xi) he denied knowing that falsifying the accounts was
a criminal offence believing that it was merely a
contractual matter
xii) he confirmed the Record of Conversation (RC/1) as
correct
xiii) he admitted the figures in the 6 Branch Trading
Statements he was shown were inflated
xiv) he was not ina position to repay the money
5. Enquiries conducted subsequently confirmed:
i) the Non polled report following the branch
relocation showed that an engineer attended on the
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16t* and 17 March 2010 to complete a base unit
build and that BT fixed a fault. However as of the
17** March 2010 the number of days Not Polled is
shown as 12.
ii) the Branch Conformation Team had not been
contacted in relation to a £3000 discrepancy
iii) no calls had been made to the National Business
Support Centre regarding any discrepancy
between March 2010 to 23 April 2012.
The Defence Case
6. By admitting to inflating cash declarations to cover losses,
and provided these losses can be proved, Mr Allen is in
effect accepting the actus reus for the offences of false
accounting or fraud by false representation. The only avenue
open to him to defend either of these potential charges then
would be to deny that he had the necessary mens rea i.e. to
say that he had not done so dishonestly. In interview he
denied knowing that falsifying his trading accounts was a
criminal offence, believing it was merely a breach of contract.
Obviously, ignorance of the law is not in itself a defence, nor
is it proof, if indeed accepted that he was so ignorant, that
his actions were not in any event dishonest. Since dishonesty
with regard to a contractual obligation remains dishonesty
nonetheless. The lack of any calls to the Branch
Conformation team or business support also belies the
suggestion that he believed the £3000 loss was a genuine
error as a result of lost data he would receive recompense
for. The amount had also been outstanding for almost two
years. In fact the level of his dishonesty is perhaps
encapsulated by the incident referred to in paragraph 4. ix)
above, when he reintroduced cash already counted once
during migration to Horizon online.
Statements
7. Inote that statements have already been provided from the
investigators Stephen Bradshaw and Andrew Wise dealing
with the investigation and subsequent interview of Mr Allen.
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2)
Clo
a
I would advise that an additional statement be provided by,
I assume Mr Bradshaw, into the enquiries conducted after
the interview with regard to the non polled report, and lack
of calls to the Branch Conformation Team and National
Business Support Centre. With regard to the Non Polled
report, a separate statement will be required explaining in
lay man’s terms, why this does not show that data could
have been lost during the 12 day period identified thus
generating the £3000 loss as claimed by the defendant.
Charges
8. Subject to a satisfactory answer to the above query about the
possibility of lost data then I would advise that a charge of
fraud by false representation would suit the circumstances
described for the period covering Mr Allen’s admission’s in
interview with regard to inflated cash declarations. The
figure of £11705 has been identified as being attributable to
him for the reasons already explained above. There is
insufficient evidence to prove to the criminal standard who if
anyone, actually stole money from the Post Office. The draft
charge is attached to this advice.
Andrew Bolc
Cartwright King