POL00294706
POL00294706
Ferndown Post Office Branch
Information Briefing
Section 1: Branch Details
e Mrs. Rachpal Athwal was appointed as the agent of
Ferndown Post Office branch on 30 January 2008 and
a contract for services exists between Post Office
Ltd and Mrs. Athwal.
e Val Athwal (Husband) and Daljinder Athwal (Daughter)
also work in the Post Office and are instrumental in
its day to day running
e The branch is urban in classification and is located
in Ferndown, a town in the East Dorset district of
southern England.
e It is a mid sized branch with 4 counter positions
serving around 2,500 customer sessions per week.
e The family are also members of the Justice for Sub
postmasters alliance (JFSA)
282508 Ferndown
3 Pennys Walk
Ferndown
Dorset
Open
Agency Branches
Matt Walls
Tony X Jones
Troy Gardner
302508 West Moors 1.82
161508 Bearwood 3.12
204508 Kinson 3.47
POL00294706
POL00294706
49.66%
36.36%
Section 2: Recent Branch History
There have been a number of issues associated with this
branch over the past 12 months. The extent of these
issues and associated correspondence exchanges between
Post Office Ltd and Ferndown branch is detailed in the
timeline below:
Date Activity Narrative
30/01/08 I Appointment Mrs. Rachpal Athwal appointed
as sub postmaster of Ferndown
Post Office branch
04/02/10 I Branch Audit Post Office Ltd audit
identified loss of £812.89 with
Mrs. Athwal paid back in full
on the same day. No
precautionary suspension
although various areas of non
conformance identified such as
non completion of training
workbooks and following of
incorrect procedures for Bureau
refunds. Written warning
provided.
06/05/10 I HOL training Mick Searle (BDM) attended the
and cash dec branch at 09.00 to provide HOL
training support in advance of
migration. As with all training
visits, this included a cash
check. On investigation Mick
noticed that figures were being
shown against the ATM line and
£1 notes line of the cash
account, lines that should have
shown zero amounts. Mick found
other areas of discrepancy and
advised the Contracts Advisor,
Carol Ballan, who then arranged
an audit on the same day.
06/05/10 I Full branch The audit revealed a shortage
audit in the branch of £959.09. A
breakdown of the audit result
and details of the audit
findings are as follows:
£ 849.18 -) Identified as a
difference in
cash figures
£ 38.87 (+) Identified as a
difference in
stock figures
POL00294706
POL00294706
£ 1.06 (+) Identified as a
difference in
postage figures
£ 39.84 (-) Discrepancy as
per office
snapshot
£ 110.00 (-) Cheque
introduced
after start of
Audit
£ 959.09 (-) Total Shortage
Audit findings were relayed to
Nigel Allen, Contract Advisor
who then made the decision to
precautionary suspend Mrs.
Athwal. On suspension Mrs.
Athwal admitted that she was
aware of a shortage of £714, in
that she admitted the cash was
inflated in her last BT
statement to cover this loss.
She had been inflating her ONCH
ever since.
Statements were also made by 3
separate people stating that a
car tax had been purchased by
the PM’s daughter on the
previous Friday but that funds
had failed to be paid as the
business cheque book was not in
the branch, They had the
forgotten to pay the money the
next day.
Mrs. Athwal tried to put some
of the blame on Horizon, saying
that a negative amount of £436
appeared on DH stock in Feb, a
stock that had been left
dormant.
Branch closed for remainder of
day
07/05/10
Continued audit
involvement and
reopening of
branch
Audit team attend the branch
once again to undertake a
transfer to a temporary agent
(Mary Cameron Stewart). A
written statement is obtained
from Mrs. Athwal and a cheque
POL00294706
POL00294706
provided to cover the total
loss of £959.09
Branch reopens at 12.30 under
management of Mary Cameron
Stewart.
11/05/10
Charge letter
sent to Mrs.
Athwal
Carol Ballan sends letter
to Mrs. Athwal stating the
consideration must be
given to summary
termination of the
contract and invites Mrs.
Athwal to attend an
interview to put forward
her version of events, or,
provide a written
submission
14/05/10
Response from
Mrs. Athwal
Mrs. Athwal replies to
Carol Ballan stating that
she does not wish to
attend an interview and
will provide a written
submission by the 26** May
24/05/10
26 page
submission sent
to RMG by Mrs.
Athwal
Mrs. Athwal sends a full
26 page submission to
Group including a request
for information on 20
counts (under FOIA) mostly
regarding our contracts
with Fujitsu and proof of
audit team competence.
25/05/10
Written
submission
received from
Mrs. Athwal
A lengthy written
submission received by
Carol Ballan
Mrs. Athwal now states
that the car tax was not
purchased by her daughter
but by a regular company
client and that payment
was not taken at the point
of sale.
Mrs. Athwal also states
that a shortage of £436
appeared out of nowhere
against a dormant stock
unit in February and that
this had been the cause of
increasing losses.
POL00294706
POL00294706
POL00294706
POL00294706
She also accused POL of
fabricating branch
accounts in order to make
a financial gain and
severely questions the
integrity of the Horizon
system.
08/06/10 I Decision to Having reviewed all case
terminate details, Carol Ballan takes the
contract decision to terminate Mrs.
Athwals contract and advises
that she is entitled to an
appeal.
14/06/10 I Response from Mrs. Athwal responds to the
Mrs. Athwal decision letter stating that:
e She is dismissing the
letter as its contents are
factually incorrect
e She believes POL internal
procedures are farcical
and that investigators are
inexperienced and
unqualified
e She states that POL
alleges that she is guilty
of two counts of criminal
activity, which is
libellous and defamatory
e States that POL are on
notice that our decision
to terminate the contract
is legally stopped until
answers to the questions
raised in her 26 page
submission are answered.
14/06/10 IMrs. Athwal States that she has been the
send letter to subject of farcical internal
Donald Brydon investigations and makes
slanderous remarks against
Carol Ballan, Andrew Thompson
and Mick Searle
21/06/10 I FOI requests POL receives copy of Mrs.
received by POLIAthwals letter of 24th May with
FOI requests on 20 counts
25/06/10 ICase file Carol Ballan provides notice to
received by Andy Bayfield of the need to
appeals manager I hear an appeal at Ferndown.
28/06/10 I Acknowledgement I Carol Ballan contacts Mrs.
of request to
Athwal and advises that she
POL00294706
POL00294706
appeal will be contacted shortly by
the appeals manager
02/07/10 I Appeal Andy Bayfield contacts Mrs.
invitation sent I Athwal and invites her to
to Mrs. Athwal I attend an appeal hearing on the
19th July in Southampton.
05/07/10 I Andy Bayfield After discussion with Michele
decides to Graves and Peter Johnson, Andy
delay the Bayfield speaks to Mr. Athwal
appeal hearing (on behalf of Mrs. Athwal) and
until the FOI agrees to delay the appeal
issues have hearing until a response has
been resolved been provides under the FOI
act.
15/07/10 I FOI response to] Peter explains that
Mrs. Athwal investigating the questions
from Peter asked by Mrs. Athwal would
Johnson significantly exceed the cost
limit set out under section
2(1) of the FOI Act and to
that end, there is no
requirement for POL to provide
a response. Mrs. Athwal can
narrow her request and POL will
reconsider.
16/08/10 I Second appeal Andy Bayfield writes to Mrs.
hearing letter IAthwal advising that a new
sent to Mrs. appeal hearing date of 8th
Athwal September has been set.
08/09/10 I Appeal hearing I Andy Bayfield hears the appeal.
Mrs Athwal arrived with her
daughter and Mark Baker of
NFSP. At the outset of the
appeal they challenged why Andy
was not “taping” the hearing
and following a long recess
whilst they decided if they
wanted to continue the appeal
without Andy taping it they
agreed to continue and it was
agreed that they could record
the appeal on a “blackberry”
Andy supplied the key points of
the appeal hearing, Mrs Athwal
was not prepared to accept
these notes of the meeting as
being a fair representation of
what was discussed.
09/09/10 I Further Further investigation
7 investigations I undertaken including a review
17/09/10 I by Andy of all previous data.
Bayfield
following
appeal hearing
22/09/10 I Decision letter I Letter states that after
sent to Mrs. considering all the evidence,
Athwal it has been decided to uphold
the decision to summary
terminate Mrs. Athwals
contract. The letter outlines
why this decision has been
taken.
24/09/10 I Premises no Mrs. Athwal advises POL that
longer she is not making the premises
available available any longer and the
branch closes to the public.
30/09/10 I Customer Customers begin to complain
complaints about the loss of service and
approach Paula Vennells by
email about the service
disruption.
01/10/10 I Decision taken I POL takes the decision to
to reinstate reinstate Mrs. Athwal as the
Mrs. Athwal losses originally incurred were
of low value and repaid in
full. Local customer disruption
and negative PR were also
factors taken into
consideration here.
02/10/10 IBranch reopens IMrs. Athwal reopens the branch
at 09.00 to the delight of her
customers.
03/10/10 IMrs. Athwal Mrs. Athwal complains about the
writes letter
to Mark Baker,
NFSP rep
fact that no audit had been
arranged at the branch on the
2-4 and makes slanderous
comments about Lynn Hobbs.
accuses the following POL
employees of deliberately
conspiring to remove Mrs.
Athwal from Ferndown PO:
Also
Lynn Hobbs
Andy Bayfield
Carol Ballan
Wendy Wackerill
Mick Searle
e Nigel Allen
POL00294706
POL00294706
23/10/10
Pay advice for
October arrives
in branches
Mrs. Athwals pay advice for
October includes reimbursement
of remuneration for 8th May -
1st October totalling £34.7k.
This has been calculated by
Agents Pay Team.
Andy Terrett phones Mrs. Athwal
and advises of the amount to be
reimbursed. Andy promises to
write a letter to Mrs. Athwal
explaining the calculations
involved here.
26/10/10
Letter sent to
Mrs. Athwal
from Andy
Terrett
Letter sent detailing
calculations involved in
remuneration reimbursement.
02/11/10
Mrs. Athwal
phones Andy
Terrett
Mrs. Athwal states that
not received the letter
the 26th October. Andy
apologises for this and
to investigate what has
happened.
she has
sent on
agrees
Following investigation that
afternoon, Andy realised that
the letter, although addressed
to Mrs. Athwal and marked
Private and in Confidence, was
sent to the private address of
the temporary agent. The error
was manual and due to the fact
that HRSAP had not yet been
updated following the
reinstatement of Mrs. Athwal.
Andy phones Mrs. Athwal back
and explains the error,
apologising for the mistake.
agrees to post a duplicate
letter to Mrs. Athwal. He also
phones the temp agent and asks
her to return the
correspondence.
He
04/11/10
Mrs. Athwal
contacts
helpline
regarding
Horizon outages
Mrs. Athwal complains that her
Horizon system has been down
for 36 hours and requests a
goodwill payment. She is
advised that the good will
payment policy does not apply
for outages less than 48 hours.
POL00294706
POL00294706
She does not accept this and
asks to speak to her contracts
manager.
05/11/10 I Email from Mrs. I Acknowledges receipt of letter
Athwal to Andy I dated 2™4 November an raises a
Terrett number of queries regarding the
reimbursement of remuneration
e Asks why she has not
received any backdated pay
for 6th ¢ 7th May when the
branch was closed.
e States that on the 7 May
2010, she gave a cheque to
the Auditor which cleared
threw the account for
£961.39, which also needs
to be refunded
e Since this is a Commercial
Debt, she believes she is
entitled to receive
Interest in accordance
with, The Late Payment of
Commercial Debts
(Interest) Act 1998.
e In addition she claims she
has lost 4 days trading in
the shop which averages
around £350 per day and
would like this, with
interest, refunded.
Andy passes her issues to Lynn
Hobbs and acknowledges Mrs.
Athwals email, advising that
someone will be in touch in due
course.
09/11/10 I Nigel Allen Despite several failed attempts
speaks to Mrs. to contact Mrs. Athwal, Nigel
Athwal Allen finally speaks to her
explains that the contracts
team do not administer the
goodwill payments. Someone from
the contract and policy team
will be in touch shortly.
25/11/10 I Complaint made IThe extract below from the call
against
Ferndown branch
by Supply Chain
centre explains the issue in
more detail:
pm called re todays del, she
POL00294706
POL00294706
said she is down to 3k in 5's
and in danger of running low,
I told her that i can't contact
cit and told her to call h/1l
to put herself on a resticted
service if nec, she started
sceaming at me and said why
should she and started to get
very personal,said it was my
fault and seemed to be under
impression that we should
monitor her cash ! She has a
very negative attitude and
conversation went from bad to
worse, we were going around in
circles and as she wasn't going
to calm down I told her that i
was going to terminate
CALL. csscseeee
Concerns also raised at this
point regarding ONCH figures in
general: high cash holdings but
continued and repeated demands
for special rems due to cash
shortages.
01/12/10 I Letter from Letter sent explaining that the
Tracy Marshall I policy for goodwill payments is
to Mrs. Athwal I currently under review. Whilst
no payment can be made at this
point in time we will contact
Mrs. Athwal in due course when
the policy has been refreshed.
02/12/10 IEmail from Mrs. IMrs. Athwal chases Andy for a
Athwal to Andy I response and enquires as to
Terrett whether the reponse has been
sent to the wrong address
again.
02/12/10 I Letter from ValILetter sent to Paula Vennells,
Athwal, on
behalf of Mrs.
Athwal received
by POL
Kevin Gilliland, Andy Terrett,
Lynn Hobbs and Mark Baker,
amongst others. Letter states
that there has been a serious
breach of data protection by
POL and enquires as to what
level of compensation we will
provide. Also complains about
the Horizon system and states
that until POL provide details
as to what went wrong with the
system, entry to her PO will be
POL00294706
POL00294706
refused to any auditors. The
letter states that she does not
trust any of our systems.
06/12/10 I Invitation to Kevin Gilliland sends letter to
interview Mrs. Athwal inviting her to
attend a meeting with him to
iron out some of the
outstanding issues.
10/12/10 I Complaint made I Complaint made that members of
POL00294706
POL00294706
by Service the Athwal family were
Delivery team frequently and inappropriately
against Mrs. contacting a member of the
Athwal Horizon team on his personal
mobile
13/12/10 I Letter sent to Letter politely asks Mrs.
Mrs. Athwal Athwal to use the correct
from Anne procedure to raise issues with
Allaker the Horizon system, by
contacting the helpline.
17/12/10 I Response from Mr. Athwal confirms that his
Mr. Athwal wife can attend a meeting gin
early January and will be
accompanied by Mark Baker,
NFSP.
Section 3: Outstanding Issues
I believe that the following issues are outstanding and
require discussion or resolution:
a) Issues raised by Mrs. Athwal in her email to Andy
Terrett of 5 November
Mrs. Athwal asks the following questions in her email to
Andy, answers to which need to be provided. Questions
along with suggested POL responses are as follows:
1) My office was closed 6th & 7th May 2010 for which you
have not paid me any money.
POL response: following further investigation we can
confirm that we will credit your account with £463.32,
covering your absence form the branch on the 6th & 7th May.
You will receive a letter from POL detailing the
calculation used here.
2) On the 7 May 2010, I gave a cheque to the Auditor
which cleared threw the account for £961.39, which also
needs to be refunded.
POL00294706
POL00294706
The cheque will not been refunded as this was paid to
cover the loss discovered at your office by our audit
team. Under the terms of your agent contract you are
responsible for making good any losses incurred at your
office. One of the factors taken into account when
agreeing to reinstate you as sub postmaster at Ferndown
branch was the fact that you had made good all
outstanding losses.
3) Since this is a Commercial Debt, I am entitled to
receive Interest in accordance with, The Late Payment of
Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.
See above - this is not a commercial debt
4) In addition to the above, I also lost 4 days trading
in the shop which averages around £350 per day.
Post Office Ltd takes no responsibility for the non Post
Office business conducted in your premises and are not
obligated to compensate you for any loss of business
here.
b) Issues raised by Mrs. Athwal in her letter to Paula
Vennells of 2™4 December
The following issues are apparent within the letter dated
2-4 December:
1) Accusations of a data protection breach by POL
POL has apologised for the error involved here which
should never have happened. We have taken steps to
rectify the errors in our internal systems to prevent
this from happening again. Under the terms of the data
protection act, a breach is classed as an incident
whereby an individuals’ personal information is disclosed
to an unauthorised third party. In this case, no specific
personal details, financial or otherwise were disclosed,
only data pertaining to the amount of remuneration to be
reimbursed. This data is not personal to you but to the
Post Office and in any event, the temporary agent who
opened the letter was well aware of the levels of income
generated by Ferndown Post Office branch.
Our legal advice is that POL has not committed a breach
of the data protection act on this occasion and no
compensation will be payable to you.
POL00294706
POL00294706
2) Specific questions about the integrity of the Horizon
system
Mrs. Athwal seeks to understand why her Horizon system
has not been able to function properly on several
occasions and requests a detailed account of what went
wrong.
Suggest that the Horizon expert deals with these specific
issues.
3) Threats to prevent any POL auditors from accessing the
premises
Mrs. Athwal threatens to prevent access to her premises
until such point as all her questions have been answered
and she has been provided with a list of all personnel
logged on to her system remotely, without her authority.
It should be made clear to Mrs. Athwal that all cash and
stock cointained within her premises is the property of
Post Office Ltd, as is the Horizon system itself. Mrs.
Athwal is acting as an agent for and on behalf of POL.
It should also be made clear that POL cannot access the
horizon system remotely and make changes to it. The
system is based on a user log in, and all actions have to
be endorsed by the user. POL cannot remotely control a
branches system.
If Mrs. Athwal refuses entry to her premises she is
automatically in breach of section 12 of her sub
postmaster contract. An extract from clause 12 is
attached below:
ACCOUNTS
4. The Subpostmaster must ensure that accounts of all
stock and cash entrusted to him by Post Office Ltd are kept in
the form prescribed by Post Office Ltd. He must immediately
produce these accounts, and the whole of his Post Office®
branch cash and stock for inspection whenever so requested by
a person duly authorised by Post Office Ltd.
4) Mistrust of POL and our systems
Mrs. Athwal states in her letter that she does not trust
Post Office Ltd or our systems. A statement of this
nature is a clear indication that the relationship is
broken and steps must be taken to either remedy the
situation or terminate the contract between both parties.
c) Complaints against Ferndown branch regarding
aggressive and rude behaviour
Both auditors and supply chain have commented on the
aggressive tone and behaviour of Mrs. Athwa’s daughter,
Daljinder. It should be made clear that this behaviour is
not acceptable.
d) Bringing the Post Office into disrepute
Section 16 of the Sub postmaster contract states that:
“views and opinions expressed publicly must not bring
Post Office Ltd or any other Subpostmaster, Franchisee,
Operator or Royal Mail Group plc or its employees into
disrepute”
In her letters to Opinion Formers, Mrs. Athwal has made a
number of slanderous remarks about Post Office personnel
and has clearly stated that she does not trust the
company nor its employees.
POL00294706
POL00294706