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Internal memo
To Deborah Helszajn
Senior Lawyer
ce
Date 2°4 June 2004
From Manish Patel
Investigation Team Manager
Subject POST OFFICE Ltd v PAGE & GRO
PAPER NO’s: CRM/239850_ (SIMS/6299)
Further to the correspondence forwarded to me from Frisby & Co Solicitors dated
23 April 2004, I have now dealt with each of the matters as indicated below and
have retained the same numbering for ease.
Page 1 request — non sensitive unused material
Copies of all of the non sensitive unused material (apart from the letter from
i _!s solicitor) as listed on the Post Office form CSO06C
have now been copied and are attached, for completer i two
superfluous items relating to notice of bail for Messer !_
Copies of all of the non sensitive unused material as listed on the Major Crime Unit
(MCU) Police form MG 6C signed by DC Andrews have now been copied and are
attached apart from item 12 (Custody Record Page) which is yet to be forwarded
to me by the Police, however a copy is included in thé POL unused material. Item
he list (roc notebooks), two officers notebooks are outstanding, DC
& DC Dedfs, again these will be forwarded in due course. Items 14 — 16
which relate to the cusfody Video tapes were not required.
Copies of all of the non sensitive unused material as listed on the Police Financial
Investigation Unit (FIU) form MG 6C signed by DC Wood have now been copied
and are attached
tL.
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Page 2 request — non sensitive unused HM Customs
You were privy to all of the HM Customs & Excise documentation and it was
agreed that none of the documentation met the criteria for disclosure_apart from
the schedule HM Customs compiled regarding the buy backs from Mi
at the various Thomas Cook Outlets, this schedule was included in the Post Office
unused list (CSO06C) and as such has been copied and is attached.
I have also now copied and attached the various officer's notebook entries as this
request appears on page 4, item 12 on the list.
Page 2 request — Disciplinary notes
Disciplinary notes of interview held on 3" July 2002 attached.
1. Copy letter of 28"" June 2002 attached.
2. Copies of all warning letters attached.
3. Copies of all documents relating to the audits on 09.11.01, 27.06.02 and
14.01.03 are now copied and attached. (electronic copies to follow on
disc)
—
4. League table as it was then is no longer available, electronic copy is
updated and old copies are not saved.
X.5. Yet tobe actioned by MrConey, —~ws Camae eP,
Page 2 request — General matter
1. Being obtained
2. Being obtained
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3. A copy of agreement has been provided to me by Hugh Stacey, though he
would prefer that the whole contract not be disclosed to a 3” party and
therefore pages 12 — 13 dealing with this part of the contract have been
copied and are attached.
4. A copy of agreement has been provided to me by Hugh Stacey, though he
would prefer that the whole contract not be disclosed to a 3 party and
therefore pages 22 — 24 dealing with this part of the contract have been
copied and are attached.
5. Copy of corporate client list attached, neither RPX Recycled plastics Ltd or
appears on this list hence they were not
recorded as corporate clients. As Rugeley Post office does not feature on
the list it invariably goes to say that it did not conduct corporate business
and if it is purported that it did then the office should have notified the
relevant section and it would then have been added to the corporate client
list. Notwithstanding that even as a corporate client, they are not afforded
any special exchange rates.
6. Being dealt with.
7. Cheque acceptance & cash handling booklet version 2 (October 2000)
copied and attached a further version 3 (Sept 2002) booklet to be
obtained in due course. A copy of the money laundering booklet also
aitached. .
8. Mr Kalsi states that there is no document which specifically states that a
business cheque can be accepted for Bureau de Change, the fact that this
is not specifically referred to in the Ops manuals suggests that this is
outside of the normal Post Office procedures. Training records to be
obtained (it is highly unlikely that any actually exist).
9. Mr Hutchinson has left the Business and therefore this is yet to be
obtained.
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10. To be obtained.
11. To be obtained (these have possibly already been supplied to Civil
Litigation but unable to confirm as Caroline is on leave)
12. Customs & excise notebooks copied.
13. See schedule below
I
Item I Exhibit I Page No’s Documents used to Unused material
No. No. compile schedule used to compile
schedule
MP/3 172 986 — 989 Relevant extracts of I Draft MP/3 schedules
Forde Moneychanger I and updated
till roles which now] schedules part of
form item No. MP/3a, I unused (copied)
exhibit number 173,
pages 990 ~ 1088.
MP/4 174 1089-1096 I Till role sections asI Customs & Excise
per above — entry, I draft schedule part of
Cheque details taken I unused material
from copy BCV’s and I (copied & attached)
Cheques (item
number SB/01),
exhibit 46 (not copied
due to poor quality)
and information from
Thomas Cook items
PB/01 to PB/116 all
copied.
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Item
No.
Exhibit
No.
Page No’s
Documents used to
compile schedule
Unused material
used to compile
schedule
MP/5
175
1097 — 1098
Relevant sections of
Forde Moneychanger
till roles (copied), item
number MP/5a, exhibit
176, pages 1099 —
1127.
Draft schedules part
of unused material
(copied & attached)
MP/6
177
1128 — 1131
Office Cash account
documents (copied),
item numbers MP/7,
MP/10, MP/12,
MP/14, MP/16,
MP9, MP/21 to
MP/59.
Forde Moneychanger
command 10 till roles
sections recovered
from Chesterfield,
item number MEP/1,
exhibit 47 pages 360
— 482.
Week number 36 to
49 (28.11.01 to
27.02.02) is outside
of period of charges
and no comparisons
made hence no cash
accounts associated.
MP/79
250
1414-1419
Used schedule MP/3,
MP/4, PB/O1 to
PB/116 & bank
account statements
items numbers AW/1
& AW/2, exhibits 166
& 167, pages 903 —
977.
MP/80
251
1420 - 1425
Thomas Cook item
numbers PB/O1_ to
PB/116, exhibits 50 —
163, pages 514 — 899.
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Item I Exhibit I Page No’s Documents used to Unused material
No. No. compile schedule used to compile
schedule
MP/82_ I 253 1470-1471 I Relevant sections of
Forde Moneychanger
till roles (copied) item
number MP/83, exhibit
254, pages 1472 —
1506. schedule MP/3,
exhibit 172, pages
986 - 989 for last
column.
MP/100 I 255 1507-1508 I Documents from Co-
op Travel, item
number GT/1, exhibit
49, pages 487 — 513
(copied)
MP/101 I 256 1509-1510 I Documents from Co-I Copies of documents
op Travel (not part of I used to obtain
exhibit bundle) exchange rate form
part of the unused
material (now copied
and attached)
MP/102 I 257 1511-1512 I Figures extracted from
excel spreadsheet
supplied from
chesterfield, only used
to show a ‘normal’
revaluation ratio
spread.
MP/104 I 258 1513-1515 I Schedule MP/3,
exhibit 172, pages
986 — 989.
14. In Mrs Edwards Statement (page 69) she refers to having to transfer in
some other foreign currencies into the Forde Moneychanger in order to
obtain a final balance and refers to exhibit DAE/03 (page 290 —291 exhibit
34).
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15.
16.
Examination of exhibit DAE/01 (page 282 — 288, exhibit 32) show the
discrepancies Mrs Edwards found in the various currencies as she
physically verified what was in the Bureau till against what the Forde
Moneychanger claimed to have (command 2 printout). The currencies
affected were the US dollar (570 more than indicated), Cypriot Pounds (10
more than indicated), the Euro (5 less than indicated), Thai Bhatt (10 less
than indicated) and Czech Republic currency (50 more than indicated).
All of the above are also written on Mrs Edwards piece of paper exhibit
DAE/02 (page 289 exhibit 33). It is those currencies that Mrs Edwards
transfers into the Forde Moneychanger and are referred to in exhibit
DAE/03 (page 290 — 291, exhibit 34).
It is not possible to say where these currencies originated from, they could
have come from Hemel Hempstead as part of a delivery or bought as a
‘Buy back’ from a customer, needless to say they were only transferred into
the Forde Moneychanger as the relevant amounts physically in the Bureau
till did not match the Command 2 printout.
I would add that I do not feel it is for the prosecution to explain what is
clearly shown in copy exhibits and may be the response to the letter should
just refer their ‘expert’ to the relevant pages and exhibit.
Stock transfer is shown in copy exhibit DAE/07 (page 302, exhibit 39)
together with the Horizon Declared cash printout indicating £11,373.01, the
value of sterling cash found in the Bureau till. At page 304 of the same
exhibit are the figures which make up total stock and MOP, £11,373.01
(sterling cash), £22,938.72 (sterling equivalent of foreign currency) and
£540 worth of phone cards to give a total value of £34,491.73.
Margaret Pearce in her 1* statement at page 78 makes reference to special
exchange rates for some customer, she also states that these customers
had told her that the special rate had been negotiated with Carl Page and
therefore she would conduct the transaction believing this to be the case,
there is no documentation available to illustrate this. Mrs Pearce does state
in her 3 statement at page 84 that a black diary was kept by Carl of
customers who had ordered currency and it could be that special exchange
rates may have been shown in this diary, however the diary was not located
on the day of the Police search and remains outstanding today.
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17. In Miss Batey’s 2™ statement (page 97), she refers to having been trained
in the Bureau de Change product. This training is not formalised and
therefore a syllabus or training record does not exist. It was the incoming
interim Sub Postmaster who provided ‘on the job’ training shortly after
taking over the office during Carl Page’s suspension and he showed the
staff including Miss Batey how to perform some of the accounting
I procedures involved in the Post office, something Carl Page had not done
{ with his existing staff. With Mrs Batey she was shown how to perform some
I of the balancing in relation to the Bureau till and therefore knew what the
i figure on page 2 in table 5, line 52 referred to when I obtained the gn
I statement from her on 26" March 2003.
With Sub Post Offices, it is the Postmaster’s responsibility to adequately
train the staff that he employs and in the majority of these cases that
training is performed whilst the staff member is working at the office.
18. Although Mrs Lievesley made the formal statement on 3 October 2003,
she had been in touch with me during “Mid January 2003” and therefore the
conversation, which had taken place between Mrs Lievesley and Mr Page,
had only occurred about two weeks previously and this information had
been imparted to me at the time. Mrs Lievesley had copies of the cheques,
which are now copied, and part of the exhibit bundle, she did not make a
record of the conversation with Mr Page but recalls it and therefore it is
included in her statement.
19. To be obtained.
20. The fax mentioned in Mr Brown’s statement (page 123) has been destroyed
as has all other paperwork which is only retained by the section for 13
weeks as indicated on page 121 of Mr Brown’s statement.
The ‘previous history’ is recorded in exhibit DPB/O1 (page 483 — 486,
exhibit 48). No other record exists.
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21. Copies are now attached, they appeared on the Post office schedule of Non
Sensitive unused material (page 2 ‘Copy of sales receipts from Co op travel
22. Contact with Mr Patel was made by Customs & Excise via telephone and
the information provided and as a result I e-mailed the request to Marie
Perry to try and ascertain the exchange rate used for that transaction, copy
e-mail attached, no other documentation exists.
Details of the £112,465.96 cheque are shown on schedule item number
MP/4 (exhibit No. 174, page numbers 1089 — 1096). Items AW/1 and AW/2
copy bank statements show further details of cheque clearance.
23. No entries relevant to Rugeley Post Office or Carl Page or I
are recorded in my note book.
24. 1 do not believe that was the case, the schedule of buy backs was put to Mr
Page during interview, however he explained the Co-op connection which
ruled out a number of the buy backs but not all of them.
The outstanding matters shown in bold will be dealt with in due course and
forwarded to your office separately.
I trust the above meets with your satisfaction and should you require anything \
further please do not hesitate to contact me on the number shown below.
Manish Patel
Investigation Team Manager
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