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Horizon Briefing — 22"? March 2012
1. Computer Weekly Articles
A number of articles have been written by Computer Weekly relating to the
Horizon System and the issues postmasters have had with deficits. The main
article was published in May 2009 and can be found in Appendix 1.
In Summary this article highlights 7 case studies where the postmasters have
claimed faults in the Horizon system have generated unexplained losses. In
all cases no evidence was provided to substantiate errors in the Horizon
System and where the case was taken to court the judge found that the
Horizon System was working properly.
Computer Weekly engaged with 3 experts, Leigh Ellis (See profile in
Appendix 2), Tony Sykes (See profile in Appendix 3) and Chris Wise. None
of these IT industry experts could find any errors with the system; although
they made a general statement that IT Systems generally do have errors.
An article by a Forensic Accountant on the Fraud Resource Web Site ( See
Appendix 11 ) also commented about his involvement in one of the cases
where he states that “the Post Office System was unlikely to be flawed
otherwise you would see problems through many of the 14,000 or so
branches”
There are further articles in Computer Weekly covering the more recent
systems failures that have been experienced — these can be found in
Appendix 5, 7, 9, 10.
In 1999 Computer Weekly disputed the cause of the Chinook Helicopter
crash which killed 29 people on board in 1994. The RAF inquiry ruled that the
pilots were to blame — however Computer Weekly reported that the control
software may have been the cause of the crash (See Appendix 4). This
article has to some extent given added credibility to Computer Weekly's
capability in this area.
2. IT Industry View of Computer Weekly
Mark Davison (Account Manager for Post Office Ltd at Gartner) has strong
connections with Brian Glick who is the Editor in Chief at Computer Weekly.
His view is that Computer Weekly have a strong influence across the IT
Industry and Government. They seem to have major influence on what is said
and how it is presented.
Appendix 14 highlights the view from Gartner of what are the key influencers
of UK Central Government.
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Brian Glick also has links with Charlotte Aldred who is an advisor to the
Cabinet Office on Open Data and Transparency.
Mark also confirms that Computer Weekly use “external experts” rather than
using any internal capability
Should we wish to have contact with Computer Weekly, Gartner would be
willing to facilitate the contact with Brian Glick.
3. Audit Reports
The Ernst & Young management Letter for the year ending 27" March 2011
highlights a number of security improvements that need to be made around
the management of central support accounts, there is nothing which would
give concern regarding the integrity of the Horizon Online system.
The Gartner report in October 2008 was commissioned to provide assurance
that the Horizon Online design was in-line with Post Office Ltd emerging
strategies as well as providing a review of the Horizon Online ( HNG-X )
architecture.. This can be found from page 28 onwards of report in Appendix
12.
Gartner stated in their summary of the Architecture Suitability that :
“Overall, the HNG-X architecture is first rate. Gartner does not
recommend changing it in any substantial way. Placement of business
logic on the Branch PCs and the use of a compact interpreter maximize
the use of modestly-configured PCs and minimize the load on the
network.
All solution architects have to deal with “trade-offs”; the HNG-X
architects crafted a
strong solution that would be hard to improve upon.”
The Internal Audit Assurance Review, in conjunction with Deloittes, of Key
System Controls in Horizon which can be found in Appendix 13 was
conducted in February 2012. Its conclusions were as follows :
“IT disciplines around functional changes and capacity monitoring
were found to be appropriately designed and also operating effectively.
However, access to the system in branches, particularly sub-post
offices, can be by means of shared accounts. In addition, fail-over from
the live data centre to the back-up centre has not been tested since
June 2009. This requirement is of particular importance, as highlighted
by an outage in the system in December 2011. Testing of the business
continuity plan has been scheduled for March 2012. Controls designed
to maintain the completeness, accuracy and integrity of transactional
data flows within HNGX were effective, with minor weaknesses noted
around manual processes for the validation of master data and
transaction data. No evidence was found of material discrepancies
arising from these issues.”
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Peter V. Stanley
Chief Architect
22" March 2012
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Appendix 1 — Computer Weekly Article - 11 May 2009
Bankruptcy, prosecution and
disrupted livelihoods - Postmasters
tell their story
'2\Monday 11 May 2009 01:01
Lee Castleton cannot get a mortgage or a bank account, and is unlikely
to ever own his house. He works over 100 hours a week as an
electrician to make ends meet and support his wife Lisa and two
children, Millie, 13, and Cameron, 12.
In this article: Key points:
* Case study 1 - Lee ¢ 14,000 post office branches
Castleton use the Post Office’s Horizon
IT system for their accounts.
Case study 2 - Jo
Hamilton
« Postmasters claim faults with
Case study 3 - Noel the technology are generating
Thomas unexplained losses
* Case study 4 - Amar
Bajaj « Post Office denies IT fault
. could cause accounting
Case study 5 - Alan system to show incorrect
Bates balances
* Case study 6 - Alan
Brown
Case study 7 - Julie
The 40-year-old former postmaster was declared bankrupt after he refused to
pay the Post Office £27,000 — money he owed because the accounts of his
Post Office branch in Bridlington, Yorkshire, showed deficits over a 12-week
period in 2004.
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Castleton insists he did not owe the money — although it showed as a loss on
the Post Office’s Horizon system, which is used by postmasters to do their
accounting. He is one of several postmasters to come across losses they
could not explain.
Castleton was so concerned about the debt that he refused to pay it back,
and decided to go to court to contest the Post Office’s insistence that he
should pay.
But the court ruled that the debt was real, not illusory as Castleton argued.
“The losses must have been caused by his own error or that of his
assistants,” the judge said. “It is inescapable that the Horizon system was
working properly in all material respects.”
POST OFFICE
Having lost the case, Castleton was left with costs of £321,000. In 2007, he
filed for bankruptcy. “I was in too deep — I see that now. The whole thing has
been heartbreaking,” he says.
After an investigation of six months, Computer Weekly has discovered that at
least seven postmasters have come into conflict with the Post Office after the
system showed losses which took them by surprise.
Jo Hamilton started signing her accounts even when she knew they were
wrong, because, she says, calls to the Horizon helpline didn’t stop the
deficits occurring and she felt backed into a corner. She was convicted of
false accounting, but was spared a prison sentence after local villagers
organised a collection to pay the debt.
Noel Thomas was convicted of the same charge, and spent his 60th birthday
in jail.
A fourth postmaster, Amar Bajaj, ended up selling his Post Office. He resents
making good the shortage and claims that the Post Office has received
£11,000 from him which he does not owe.
A fifth, Alan Brown, had a £6,500 deficit written off by the Post Office — only
to find another £13,000 loss that he could not explain.
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In a sixth case, Judy Ford had her IT equipment replaced by the Post Office,
but not before £10,000 had gone missing. The company said it was probably
down to her own errors, but she insisted she had not got anything wrong. She
couldn't afford the repayments. “I lost all confidence in my job, and now I am
going bankrupt. I have no trust in the Post Office at all,” she says.
A seventh postmaster, Alan Bates, refused to sign his weekly accounts,
saying it would have made him liable for any losses. He has called for a
public inquiry.
All of the postmasters we spoke to say that their union, the National
Federation of Sub Postmasters, has refused to help them investigate their
concerns.
The Post Office denies it received any complaints from postmasters, and also
denies that any IT-related fault could have caused the systems to show
incorrect sums of money owed by some postmasters.
A spokesman said, “Horizon is an extremely robust system which operates
over our entire Post Office network and successfully records millions of
transactions each day. There is no evidence that points to any fault with the
technology. We would always look into and investigate any issues raised by
sub-postmasters.”
The Federation declined to comment on the postmasters’ claims.
Lack of evidence
None of the postmasters have firm evidence that IT was to blame. Jo
Hamilton did not even realise it could have been the equipment causing
problems until after her court case. She says, “I didn’t understand what was
happening, and I’m so rubbish with IT that at the time I thought it was
somehow my fault. But other postmasters contacted me after my case, and I
realised I wasn’t alone.”
One expert, Tony Sykes, a business systems specialist, says that further
investigation is needed. Sykes has studied the system print-outs which
showed that Castleton’s Post Office had run up large debts.
A senior official at the Federation of Sub Postmasters, who asked not to be
named, said, “The Horizon system may have been hunky dory on day one,
but how does the Post Office know the system hasn't degraded over the
years?
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“The problem we have is the culture of the Post Office. It’s heresy to say
something can go wrong. No one can say computers cannot go wrong.”
Those affected say the Post Office did not fully investigate their claims. They
also say that their contract requires them to pay any loss at their branch,
whatever the circumstances.
Litigation solicitor Leigh Ellis, an IT specialist, says the contract between
postmasters and the Post Office is weighted in favour of the company.
“Postmasters need to be very careful that they retain evidence of differences
between what the computer system reports and what they receive through
the till. They need to put their concerns in writing to the Post Office explaining
what the problems are.”
Chris Wise, a business systems consultant who acts as an expert witness in
court cases involving IT systems, says, “It’s difficult to know what has gone
wrong from the evidence we have to date, but almost all IT systems ever built
have malfunctioned at some point. What matters is the way a business deals
with those errors and gets to the bottom of what has actually happened.”
He says it may not have been IT glitches that caused problems for
postmasters but the way the Post Office handled them.
Back to top
Case study 1
« Lee Castleton, Bridlington, Yorkshire
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" Lee Castleton, 40, was postmaster at the
Bridlington post office in east Yorkshire. His problems started in January
2004, and he claimed he couldn’t get help from the Post Office.
“Misbalances continued for 12 weeks. I spent hours going through accounts,
trying to find out what had happened. It was baffling,” he says.
Castleton rang the Horizon helpdesk, which is run by the Post Office, and
asked repeatedly for help and a system check, but says they did very little.
“The Federation didn’t help me either. It said it didn’t want to get involved and
refused to let me join.”
After 12 weeks, Castleton was suspended and the Post Office told him he
had to pay for the losses. “I decided to contest my obligation to pay the
money in the civil court, because I hadn’t done anything wrong,” he says.
Castleton could not afford lawyers in the High Court, or pay an IT expert
witness to look at the system logs for him. He argued that the discrepancy in
his accounts had been created by the computer. But the judge said that the
deficiencies were real, not illusory, and, as such, were evidence that the
branch had not been managed properly. “The losses must have been caused
by his own error or that of his assistants,” the judgment said.
Under their contract with the Post Office, postmasters are liable for any
losses that are due to carelessness, negligence or error. Castleton was also
liable for the company’s legal costs.
“The Post Office really put me through the mangle,” he says. “I owed £27,000
for the deficits, and £321,000 altogether. I was in too deep — I see that now.
The whole thing has been heartbreaking.”
Back to top
Case study 2
« Jo Hamilton, South Warnborough, Hampshire
Jo Hamilton, 51, was postmistress in South Warnborough in Hampshire
between 2003 and 2005.
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Hamilton started experiencing problems in October 2003. She entered every
transaction into the system via the touchscreen till, and at the end of the
week the computer would tell her how much money she should have.
“One time it said I was down £2,000, so I rang the Horizon helpdesk. The
supervisor told me to do various things, and three minutes later I was £4,000
down. Whatever I did after that, I couldn’t get it to come up any different,” she
says.
The Post Office told her she owed the money, and took repayments out of
her monthly wages. “It made me reluctant to phone them, because it was just
crazy — when I asked for help, it just doubled the amount and said I owed it
money.”
Hamilton’s problems worsened. “Every week the system would come up
telling me how much I should have in there. I knew it wasn’t the right amount,
but I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t ring them up, because I just didn’t have
the money to pay it all back. So I signed the accounts each week, saying
there was a certain amount in there when I knew there wasn't. I know it was
dishonest, but I didn’t steal any money. It got worse and worse.”
Post Office auditors visited the branch in March 2005 and told Hamilton she
owed £36,000. They prosecuted her for theft and 14 counts of false
accounting, but later dropped the theft charge.
Hamilton says the case did not deal with the issue of IT. She pleaded guilty
and was given a year’s probation. Her house was remortgaged to pay the
money, and the villagers in South Warnborough collected £9,000 between
them to help.
Hamilton says, “In 18 months, I will have finished paying back the villagers,
but won't have paid off our mortgage.”
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Back to top
Case study 3
« Noel Thomas, Gaerwen, Anglesey
Noel Thomas, 61, from Anglesey, worked for the Post Office for 42 years. His
problems started in 2003, when he discovered a deficit of £6,000. He says he
spent hours looking at it, trying to find out what was wrong.
He says the Post Office paid half of the deficit for him, and he paid the other
half. He didn’t have any more problems until 2004.
“It started up again all of a sudden. The money was going at a rate of £2,000
a month, and it went on until October 2005. The last figure they told me I
owed was £50,000.
“The National Federation of Sub Postmasters didn’t want to know. It is
frustrating — I would like to know where that money went to. The whole thing
is a real mess,” he says.
Faced with mounting deficits and nowhere to turn for help, Thomas signed
the accounts to say the money was there, when it wasn't. “I didn’t know what
else to do. It was my biggest mistake — I should have turned round and told
them I was shutting up shop until they found out what was going on. But at
the time I thought they would close the Post Office if I did that, and that would
cause a problem for the village.”
The Post Office prosecuted Thomas for false accounting. He pleaded guilty
and says the IT system didn’t come up during his hearing — his barrister told
the judge about his good character.
Mark Jenner, who at the time was the director of fraud investigation at
accountancy firm Baker Tilly, said in a report prepared in advance of the
case that he did not propose that the Horizon system was flawed. “If the
Horizon system was flawed, I would expect to see issues raised by all 14,000
branches in the UK and not only a handful,” he said.
But Jenner had been unable to examine the computer terminal used in
Thomas’s branch. “To completely discount the possibility that the Gaerwen
branch terminal was not responsible for creating systematic and cumulative
errors, I would still wish to inspect the terminal,” he said.
Jenner's report was produced before the court hearing, when Thomas
expected to face charges of theft. It was not used in the hearing because the
theft charges were dropped.
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Thomas was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison. “I spent my 60th birthday in
there,” he says. “It was hell on earth and it took me a long time to get over it.”
Back to top
Case study 4
« Amar Bajaj, Chelmsford, Essex
Former barrister Amar Bajaj, from Chelmsford, sold his post office after losing
£11,203.
His problems started in 2004, and he wrote to the Post Office every time
there was a misbalance in the accounts. In July 2005, he contacted a solicitor
because he felt that “the Post Office would look to prosecute us due to its
own mistakes”
Bajaj says of the problems, “Any shortage will remain on the system for many
weeks until a demand is made by the Post Office for the amount to be made
good.
“I personally made good any shortage. After we got it back down to zero, the
system would show a shortage of anywhere between £2,500 and £3,500
within a week.
“In spite of various letters and correspondence between myself and solicitors,
no official has visited to see or check or remedy the defects. I am of the
opinion that the Post Office is in breach of its contract to maintain the system,
and therefore has wrongfully obtained our money and is earning interest as a
result.”
Bajaj contacted his MP, Simon Burns, who wrote to the Post Office on his
constituent’s behalf. In its reply, the company said, “We do accept that
individual branches may experience very occasional failures.”
Back to top
Case study 5
e Alan Bates, Llandudno, Wales
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lan Bates, 52, worked at the post office in
Llandudno in north Wales, from 1998 to 2003.
In 2000, he discovered a shortfall of £1,041.86 which he couldn't account for,
and wrote to the Post Office. After two further letters, the company wrote back
in 2002, saying they would write off the amount but without giving any
reason.
It said, “Post Office Ltd has decided to take no further action in respect of the
loss at your post office which will be written off.”
Despite the loss being written off, Bates continued to have problems with
deficits. He refused to sign his weekly accounts, saying it would have made
him liable for any losses. When deficits occurred, he refused to use his own
money to pay them. He was a member of the union, but said it was not
supportive.
“Why didn’t the Post Office prosecute me? Because it knew there were faults
with my system. It did not want to take me to court. I never tried to take it to
court as I had received quite a broad range of legal advice about doing so. I
was told that it could keep me in court and keep appealing any findings until I
ran out of money.
“There should be a public inquiry into this. I am in no doubt that many sub-
postmasters have finished up breaking the law because of the Post Office
and the position it left them in,” he says.
Back to top
Case study 6
« Alan Brown, Callender Square, Falkirk
Alan Brown is a serving postmaster. He gave an e-mail dated January 2006
to Lee Castleton for Castleton to use in his own court case. The e-mail says
the Post Office had written off a £6,500 loss on his account “some time” after
he said it had appeared on the system.
But he says another shortage appeared that evening when he was balancing
the accounts. “I have one screen that says I have a £4 gain, and the screen
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next to it says I have a £13,000 loss on the same stock unit,” he says in the
e-mail.
“One node has stopped communicating with the rest. This could be costing
sub-postmasters throughout the country a fortune and all because the
computer systems occasionally do not work.”
Back to top
Case study 7
« Julie Ford, Yeovil, Somerset
Julie Ford is from Yeovil in Somerset. She became postmistress of Westfield
Post Office in October 2007. Her problems with the company started at the
beginning of November 2007, when her branch started losing hundreds of
pounds at a time. The problems continued until February 2009, when she
was forced to file for bankruptcy.
“At one stage I was £1,300 down. I rang up the Post Office and said I think
there’s something wrong. It said one of the staff, or myself, had sticky
fingers,” she says.
By January, Ford had paid all her £2,500 savings to the Post Office, so rang
up and asked for an audit when £3,000 went missing overnight. The audit
found she was nearly £10,000 short. The Post Office took money out of her
wages, and suspended her for 18 weeks while it carried out an investigation.
Instead of prosecuting or terminating her contract over the deficits, the
company reinstated Ford in June 2008 without further action. The problems
continued until several parts of her Horizon system were replaced, then
balancing returned to normal.
But Lynn Hobbs, general manager, network support at the Post Office, said in
an e-mail at the time, “I am sure you are aware that we have had previous
challenges in relation to the integrity of the system and I can confirm that the
system has passed all tests and been exonerated in both the civil and
criminal courts. I therefore cannot accept that the losses were as a result of
the Horizon kit.”
Hobbs suggested, “I think we should also look at other factors which
coincided with this change, such as the additional training provided and the
change of personnel at the branch.”
Ford says, “In the end I refused to work. I wasn’t taking the money and I
wasn’t making stupid mistakes. If they thought I was stealing money, why did
they reinstate me? I lost all confidence in my job, and now I am going
bankrupt.”
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Back to top
Other investigative articles by Computer Weekly:
Computer Weekly disputes cause of Chinook crash
MoD’s £5bn Defence Information Infrastructure hits major problems
Hundreds of patients lost in NPfIT systems
Software scams grow
Co-op challenges court ruling
Housing Corp refuses to disclose report on £17m project
Government IT projects will cost taxpayers £18bn more than expected
Civil servants told to shred Gateway Review reports
The truth, a semblance of the truth and nothing like the truth
Computer Weekly wins Freedom of Information Award
HMRC’s missing CDs — what went wrong and the lessons
No warning for hospital on patient system problems
ft
Teragram53 Collapse Expand
I am a sub-postmistress and have had problems with demands for money and
deductions from my salary twice and am sure of why it happened. I have a
Hanco cash machine and the errors occurred on the monthly rollover day
both times. I tried to discuss it with the Post Office department which covered
the cash machine and was treated rudely and with little interest.
I discussed the matter with Hanco and our figures agreed. The problem was
haphazard accounting systems in the Post Office and the matter has never
been resolved. I asked the Federation for help because I was a member and
was advised to photocopy reams of paper and send them to Chesterfield and
then they were all ignored and I was told that the sum would be taken from
my salary if I refused to pay. I spent time on this and the Federation kept
coming back and saying, that I wasn't presenting the case properly and they
were no help at all. The money was taken from my salary on both occasions
regardless of the fact that my objections were never answered.
I believe that there was a discrepancy because some of the money issued
from the cash machine was dispensed after cut off on the month end leaving
a discrepancy for that month because of the way the PO accounts for the
cash machine money and that there should have been a corresponding
discrepancy at the end of the next month to compensate but although they
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were willing to identify the discrepancy in their favour there was never a
corresponding one. Therefore, their argument was not valid and there was
not even an attempt to communicate on the matter - they just didn't
understand how the office ran because they accounted one way and the
Hanco accounts were another way and my Horizon system was different from
both - although, after discussion, I was able to agree that there was no
problem with Hanco because they understood how it worked. They also
grouped several figures together which did not relate to each other and
refused to discuss the fact that this was not normal practice.
The sums of money were not big enough to justify legal action although I did
think about going through the small claims court. It is all extra work and
everybody who works for the Post Office works ridiculous hours for less than
minimum wage (and without employee benefits because we are "agents").
The result of these restraints is that I did not take further action but I was
unaware at the time of how often these discrepancies occurred and that so
many large sums were involved.
Maggie
Lincolnshire
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Appendix 2 — Leigh Ellis - Profile
Leigh Ellis / Solicitor
Fe
5)
Leigh Ellis is a solicitor, software engineer, intellectual property and
information technology specialist. He acquired significant experience in
software development and the IT industry prior to becoming a solicitor.
Coupled with this, he is an accredited trade mark attorney and ideally suited
to address most issues confronting companies involved in information
technology.
tel
Legal Expertise
Leigh's practice covers international information technology transactions and
disputes, including software and technology contracts, software and patent
licenses, patent infringement, copyright litigation and claims. He is a highly
experienced intellectual property lawyer and advises on the full suite of
intellectual property rights. He regularly advises on protecting and
enforcement of trade reputation, infringement, structuring businesses to
minimise risk and liability in commercial transactions. He appears in court
and conducts High Court commercial litigation for clients in a range of
industries.
With a keen eye for detail, technical expertise and genuine interest in the
law, his skills facilitate identification of sources of evidence easily overlooked
and discounted, unravelling the complexity in technology disputes and
maximising the value and weight of evidence in court proceedings. He has
provided legal advice to clients located in the United Kingdom, the United
States, France, Switzerland, China, Gibraltar, Australia, Panama, Saudi
Arabia, Russia and other countries on intellectual property litigation &
information technology contracts, and disputes.
Specialist Industry Sectors
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Information technology, software licensing
Media and New Media
Entertainment
Online Publishing
Memberships
« British Computer Society
« Society of Computers and Law
e Admitted as a solicitor in England and Australia
Professional Experience
« advises regularly on software licensing issues and intellectual property
rights
¢ protection of trade reputation and goodwill
« assists companies transform their marketing to internet based
ventures
« ISPs and commercial entities on internet based companies
« Has appeared on Sky News, BBC News, Channel 5 commenting on
international developments in IT law and intellectual property affecting
the technology industry and interviewed for industry publications.
Interviewed by The Times, Forbes, BBC Online, Computing Magazine,
New York Times, Guardian Online, TalkSport, amongst others
« Advised on examinations for a London University
Specialist Practice Areas
Intellectual Property Litigation
Technology Law
Digital Rights Management (DRM)
Outsourcing and Procurement
Technology Licensing
Commercial Litigation
Protection of trade reputation and goodwill
Management of corporate risk
Academic Qualifications
« Master of Laws: Intellectual Property
« Bachelor of Computer Science
e Registered Trade Mark Attorney, Australia
Clients include
New Media Agencies
Software Houses
National Distributors
IT Companies
Importers and exporters
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« Content Providers
« Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
« Solicitors seeking intellectual property advice
Advised on
¢ affiliate marketing disputes, involving high degree of technical
knowledge relating to database structures and programming
languages
¢ ingestion of content, streaming of content, and maintenance of IP
rights
« software license audits
« telecommunications contracts
e intellectual property rights in petroleum industry, mobile telephones,
motorsport and perfume
¢ contractual disputes involving least cost routing algorithms, trading
systems; online video delivery systems
Leigh is a non-member partner of Gillhams Solicitors LLP. For more
information, see the Notices & Disclaimer Section of our website by clicking
below.
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Appendix 3 — Tony Sykes - Profile
David Anthony Sykes - IT
Group Partner
BSc. C.Eng. CITP MIET FAE MEWI - Managing Director
Download David Sykes CV
uk.com/files/Qualified_Electrical Engineer _Expert_Witness.pdf"Thank you
for your recent emails and for the further amended second report. I have
reviewed the report in some detail. I am extremely pleased with its content.
You have done a first rate job of conveying in simple terms what [our client's]
problem is."
Stephens Scown Solicitors - "Thank you for all of your help and assistance
with this matter, and your contribution was particularly significant, I believe, in
achieving the end result."
Read more testimonials from Solicitors & Barristers who have instructed
David Sykes.
http://www. itgroup-
uk.com/index.php?page=article&sec=140http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysykesConnect
on Linkedin
Personal
Name. David Anthony Sykes BSc. C.Eng. CITP MIET FAE MEWI
IT Group UK Limited
Grosvenor House
Central Park
Telford
TF2 STW.
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Education
1967 - 1973
King Edward VII Grammar School Sheffield
9 GCE O Levels
3 GCE A Levels
1974 - 1978. BSc Honours Degree in Electrical Engineering with Electronics
Professional
Chartered Engineer and Member of the Institution of Engineering and
Technology. Member of the Society of Expert Witnesses. Registered with the
Association of Personal Injury Lawyers as an expert witness. Practicing
Fellow of the Academy of Experts. Member of the Society for Computers and
Law. Member of the committee of the SCL IT Disputes Group. Member of the
National Association of Subrogation Professionals. IEE Expert Witness, IET
Expert Witness. Expert in Sale of Goods act. Fully trained in Encase Mobile
Phone Forensics.
Career History
4992 - Current. Chairman and Chief Executive, IT Group UK Limited
4989 - 1992 Managing Director, Microsys Consultants Limited
1988 - 1989 Group Manager, GEC-Plessey Telecommunications
1984 - 1988 Computer Applications Manager of FKI Babcock Group
Company
1982 - 1984 Chief Engineer, Metal Closures Group Company
1979 - 1982 Systems Engineer for a German automotive test Company
1973 - 1978 Electronics Engineer, British Leyland
Profile
I have over 25 years experience in the application of electronics and
software, chiefly as a designer of IT and telecommunications products and
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systems. I have worked with organizations such as GEC, Courtaulds and the
MOD, on design contracts and for organizations such as OFCOM, BT and
British Gas in a Consultancy role. I have been instructed by FM Global,
Crawfords, Cunningham Lindsey and Zurich in connection with Insurance
Claims and Loss adjustment. I have been instructed by firms such as
Slaughter & May, Herbert Smith, Baker McKenzie, Denton Wilde Sapte.
Pinsents, Eversheds, Taylor Wessing, Freshfields and PriceWaterhouse in
connection with company litigation, copyright and customs tribunals. I have
undertaken many forensic investigations and given evidence in the Crown
Court in Criminal Proceedings presenting computer and electronic forensic
evidence.
Some reported High Court Trials in which I prepared reports and gave
evidence include:
« Kingsway Hall Hotel Limited -v- Red Sky IT (Hounslow) Limited. High
Court Queen's Bench Division Technology and Construction Court
« Horace Holman Group Limited v Sherwood International Group
Limited (High Court TCC)
« SAM Business Systems v Hedley & Co (High Court TCC)
« Watford Electronics Limited v Sanderson CFL Limited (Court of
Appeal)
« R. Benfield v Life Racing (High Court TCC)
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Appendix 4 - BBC Article on Chinook Tragedy
Wednesday, May 26, 1999 Published at 12:10 GMT 13:10 UK
UK
Magazine disputes Chinook tragedy cause
The 29 people on board the Chinook died in the crash
A computer magazine is disputing the finding that two pilots whose Chinook
helicopter crashed on the Mull of Kintyre in 1994 were "grossly negligent".
“ All 29 people on board the helicopter died, including some of
Tony Collins Northern Ireland's most senior police and intelligence experts.
tells the
BBC about The aircraft was flying to Inverness from Ulster when it
his crashed in thick mist.
magazine's
report An RAF board of inquiry ruled the pilots - Flight Lieutenants
Jonathan Tapper and Richard Cook - were to blame but the
conclusion has been strongly contested by their families and some
politicians.
0) Based on the limited evidence, the inquiry said the wrong rate
The BBC's of climb was the most likely cause. It decided that although
Emma. technical malfunction was unlikely, it could not be positively
Simpson: disproved.
The
magazine Now, Computer Weekly reports that the helicopter's engine
says the control software may have been the cause of the crash.
technical
investigation ‘Car pedal’
was flawed
The magazine's Executive Editor, Tony Collins, said with the
benefit of hindsight new evidence had come to light which was not available
to crash investigators.
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Fit Lt Tapper is said to have expressed concerns about the speed at which
the Chinook's "full authority digital engine control" was being put into service.
Mr Collins likened the software to a car's accelerator
pedal.
"If the engines receive a signal from the software telling
u them to accelerate when the pilots don't want to, the
only way they can bring down the speed is to go into
cloud in a way which they don't want to,” he said.
"That has not been generally understood. It has been
thought that if the software fails, it would fail ina
predictable manner."
The pilots were said
to have chosen the
wrong climb rate
Mr Collins said he did not think the inquiry had been
deliberately misled but it was clear that crash
investigators have difficulties when examining computer software after an
accident.
"Gross negligence can only be brought if there's no doubt whatsoever as to
the cause of the crash," he told the BBC.
Verdict ‘unsafe’
"In this case, there are too many uncertainties and the evidence that we have
highlighted proves that the evidence on which the verdict was based is
inconclusive.
"We are saying that the verdict of gross negligence is manifestly and
demonstrably unsafe."
Computer Weekly also questions whether the aircraft should even have been
allowed to fly as it believes evidence from America should have alerted the
army to the potential software problems.
Other theories which were rejected at the time of the inquiry included
interference from laptop computers, mobile phones, submarine
communications and the possibility of a passenger bursting into the cockpit.
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Questions also arose about whether the crew members
were running out of flying time and were going flat out
to stay within their designated hours.
After a four-week fatal accident inquiry in 1996, a
sheriff recommended the immediate installation of
cockpit voice and accident data recorders.
He said he was not satisfied that the cause of the
accident was the pilots' choice of an inappropriate rate
of climb.
Menzies Campbell:
for i i
Call fo nguiry Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, Menzies
Campbell said the inquiry's findings should be
reviewed.
He said: "I have long been convinced that there is an injustice here.
"The RAF's own regulations at the time required that every other cause had
to be eliminated before deceased pilots could be found to be negligent.
"The additional evidence appears once again to confirm the view that there
were other possible causes for this tragic accident."
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Appendix 5 — Computer Weekly Article 02 Mar 2012
News
Post Office turns to Twitter during
computer system crash
Cliff Saran mailto/” 72 Friday 02 March 2012 12:02
The Post Office branch network is back up and running after it failed for several hours
on Thursday.
Users on Twitter were informed that the service had crashed. The Post Office team
tweeted and responded individually to over 100 customers who had queries on the
system failure: “Apologies, we are aware of a problem affecting our branches, which is
being looked at,” the Post Office posted in one tweet.
Home Insurance
We guarantee
‘to beat your
home insurance
renewal quote
by at least £50:
jow much you
id save today!
A Post Office spokesman said of yesterday's system crash: "Post Offices across the
network are again working normally after a computer problem which had earlier
affected branches nationwide for several hours. We apologise to all our customers for
the service problems experienced in our branches and the inconvenience this may have
caused. Services have now fully been restored and customers are able to complete all
transactions across the Post Office network. We are continuing to monitor the
situation closely to make sure our services remain available as normal.”
The system failure appears more substantial than the previous outage in December
2011 when the Post Office suffered disruption after thousands of branches were hit by
a computer crash.
At the time the problems hit for two 30-minute periods, which left some branches
unable to handle the usual volume of mail.
Post Office owner Royal Mail is undergoing a major transformation in its business,
which is due to complete in 2016, to modernise the mailing service, with greater levels
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of automation. As part of the project, according its December 2011 annual statement,
Royal Mail reported it has started to implement the largest SAP human resources and
payroll system in Europe. The IT system, dubbed “People System Programme”, aims
to completely modernise all of the Royal Mail HR systems and drive performance
improvements.
As part of government plans to part-privatise Royal Mail, the Post Office is set to be
mutualised, a plan that is likely to lead to further major changes in the back-office IT
that supports both organisations.
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Appendix 6 — Computer Weekly Article 27 Feb 2012
Post Office reveals plans for identity
assurance services
Kathleen Hall mailtof ‘2 Monday 27 February 2012 14:38
The Post Office is tendering for hardware and software which will enable it to become
a provider of the government's proposed Identity Assurance (IDA) services.
IDA is a key part of the government’s move to "digital by default" public services, and
will require citizens to electronically verify who they are to access public services
online.
The government’s intention is to create a market of private sector identity assurance
services, with individuals given the option to choose a certified private sector company
to assure their identity. Banks, supermarkets and even social network sites could set
themselves up as identity assurance providers.
The Post Office's search for a technology partner reveals its intent to provide identity
assurance services across online, telephony and face-to-face channels, throughout its
branch network and brand, according to its tender notice.
The contract will be worth £9m over 12 months and has been split into two lots. The
first lot worth £2.5m includes consumer data services, which will process the personal
details of users, as a means of authentication.
The second lot worth £6.5m includes identity management services, for systems and
software for a single-sign-in system; near-field communication (NFC) tools, and
mobile telephony for authentication and transaction delivery, as well as customer
relationship management and support services.
Speaking at the official launch of the Government Digital Service in December 2011,
Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said the government would seek an online-only
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model in digital services where possible to cut costs: “Where public services are
capable of being delivered digitally online they should be, and only online.”
Maude has earmarked £10m for implementation of IDA from the government’s £650m_
cyber defence fund
Mike Bracken, director of digital and senior responsible owner for IDA, recently told
Computer Weekly that more widely used security protocols for IDA would be key to
identifying users. “Even some of our best services, like driving registration, require
users to put all their data in for parking permit even if they have already submitted it
for registration. There is no common ID framework recognised in two places,” he
said.
“What we are building is not an IT programme but standards the market can coalesce
around. So it’s more nuanced than classic IT programmes, where you throw in a
system integrator and wait for it to be delivered."
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Appendix 7 - Computer Weekly Article 14 Dec 2011
Post Office suffers disruption after IT
failure
2 Wednesday 14 December 2011 09:15
Karl Flinders mailtd
The Post Office suffered disruption this week after thousands of branches were
hit by a computer crash.
The problems hit for two 30-minute periods on Monday afternoon, which left some
branches unable to handle the usual volume of mail.
There was a problem with the Horizon system used by Post Offices around the
country. The service has now been restored.
“We are very sorry for the inconvenience this problem has caused customers. We
know how important the Post Office is to our customers at all times, but especially at
Christmas,” said Kevin Gilliland, network and sales director at the Post Office.
According to reports, staff had to manually calculate the cost of sending goods and
then stick on individual stamps on one of the busiest days of the year for the Post
Office with Christmas approaching.
About 4,000 branches were affected.
Previous Post Office system problems
The Post Office also suffered a glitch back in July, which meant customers were
unable to complete card transactions across all branches.
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Debit and credit card transactions using Chip and PIN pads at branch counters and
Post Office Card Accounts were affected, with customers unable to complete
transactions or access their accounts.
The Horizon system is currently at the centre of a potential legal action against the
Post Office. Over 80 sub-postmasters are interested in taking legal action against the
Post Office in relation to Horizon, which has allegedly has led to false accounting
accusations against them.
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Appendix 8 — Computer Weekly Article 15 Dec 2011
Post Office casts net for IT consultancy
services
2 Thursday 15 December 2011 11:44
Karl Flinders mail
The Post Office has put out a request for suppliers to bid for IT consulting
services worth up to £8m over two years.
The tender is looking for suppliers to provide consultancy services to the Post Office.
IT department to support the transformation of its operating model.
According to the tender, the consulting will provide support and guidance to the IT
leadership team in the development and delivery of “organisational design and impact
assessment triggered by IT strategies and change programmes, the provision of
consultancy to support the development and delivery of enterprise architecture, the
provision of consultancy to support the development and delivery of the security
architecture”.
The Post Office expects four suppliers to be chosen.
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Appendix 9 —- Computer Weekly Article 08 Feb 2011
Post Office faces legal action over
alleged accounting system failures
2 Tuesday 08 February 2011 14:33
Karl Flinders mail
More than 50 postmasters are planning legal action against the Post Office to reclaim
money they paid to the Post Office after being accused of theft and false accounting.
All the postmasters protested their innocence and it is alleged that the problems could
be down to the Post Office's Horizon accounting system, which they all use. The Post
Office has denied an IT fault could cause the system to show incorrect balances
Access Legal, the consumer arm of law firm Shoosmiths, will initially launch the action
for a group of six postmasters. It has a total of 55 already lined up to bring action and
expects many more once the cases are made public.
Some of the postmasters gave exclusive interviews to Computer Weekly almost two
years ago about the alleged Horizon problems.
Thousands of post offices use the Horizon IT system for their accounts and
postmasters claim faults with the technology could be generating unexplained losses.
The Post Office has denied this.
In recent years dozens of postmasters have been charged and even jailed with others
repaying money following prosecutions. More than 250 post offices have been forced
to close, according to Shoosmith's.
Amanda Glover, head of legal disputes at Shoosmiths, said, "Horizon was introduced
to sub-post offices to provide first weekly, then monthly accounting, but didn't do a
double entry, so it couldn't be checked regularly. Many users reported problems and
couldn't work out how losses were arising. When they called a helpline, many claimed
the problems got worse.
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"Customers would try to get money from the hole-in-the-wall, but although they didn't
receive it, it later showed as having been taken from their account.
"A key issue is the fact the system couldn't be accessed unless postmasters confirmed
they agreed with figures on a daily basis, which led to errors being accepted by
postmasters just so that they could log on to the system.
"They all say they have not taken any money, and while the Post Office says there is
nothing wrong with Horizon, it appears to record people using it when they are not
even logged on. One post office even recorded a loss when it was closed."
Glover said some postmasters are paying back "missing" amounts to avoid
prosecution. The most common amount is around £35,000.
The Post Office said in a statement that it is "fully confident that the Horizon
computer system in its branches, and all the accounting processes around it, are
absolutely accurate and reliable at all times."
It added, "The Horizon system has been subjected to full, independently assured,
robust testing procedures.
"The Horizon information security processes meet the relevant industry standards
which apply to such organisations as banks and building societies.
"Subpostmasters are given fully appropriate training, typically including classroom
training and a further time on site under close supervision and guidance from a Post
Office manager. Subpostmasters can also ring a dedicated helpline for advice.
"The Horizon system has operated successfully for more than 10 years across the Post
Office network, which currently stands at more than 11,500 branches.
"The National Federation of Subpostmasters, which represents the views and interests
of subpostmasters around the country, has gone on record on a number of occasions
to express its full confidence in the accuracy and robustness of the Horizon system.
"The Horizon system provides detailed records of every transaction, no matter how
small or large, in any individual post office branch. Separate records of all key strokes
in the system are stored in a tamper-proof way.
"The Post Office handles large sums of public moncy as well as the money entrusted to
it by the 20 million people who visit our branches each week. The Post Office rightly
makes every effort and takes all reasonable steps to protect the money in its care."
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Appendix 10 — Computer Weekly Article 27 Jul 2011
Computer glitch halts Post Office card
transactions
Jenny Williams mailt
2011 05:00
Customers have been unable to complete card transactions at the Post Office today
after a computer glitch across all branches.
Debit and credit card transactions using Chip-and-PIN pads at branch counters as well
as Post Office Card Accounts have been affected, with customers unable to complete
transactions or access accounts. The BBC predicts up to 3.3 million Card Account
customers could be affected.
In a statement, the Post Office apologised to customers for the computer problem and
confirmed its 11,820 branches remained open.
Martin Moran, Post Office commercial director said: "We apologise to customers for
any inconvenience. We are making every effort to restore these services as soon as
possible."
The Post Office is making "special arrangements" for emergency cash payments to
pensioners and benefits claimants that rely on Post Office Card Accounts.
The firm also advised customers could alternatively withdraw cash from any of the
Post Office's 2000 ATMs, which have been unaffected by the problem.
The Post Office said further details would be released shortly.
Royal Mail is set to get another CIO, its third in less than 18 months, when former
Network Rail corporate development director Catherine Doran takes over the role
from 1 September.
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UPDATE: A Post Office statement released at 4.30pm today says the technical
problems with PIN pads have been solved as of 3.30pm, having been down since
branches opened today. The firm says it made 1,000 emergency payments to Post
Office Card Account customers during that time.
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Appendix 11 — Fraud Advice Article 23 Oct 2009
Fraud and the Post Office Horizon
Computer
Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 10:42 am
I was searching the Internet last night to see if my Fraud Resource web site
had moved up Google’s ranking at all and came across a link to my name
concerning a job I did around 4 years ago. It is interesting to see the
contents of a forensic accounting report being quoted in the press as usually
the forensic accountant remains in the background in criminal prosecutions
even when his or her work is critical to the proper outcome of the matter.
The article was by ComputerWeekly.com and highlighted the plight of a
number of postmasters who ran 7 of the Post Office’s 14,000 or so branches
throughout the UK. All of them had been convicted or accused of stealing
typically £40,000 from their branch. One of the cases was mine. I am quoted
as saying that the Post Office system was unlikely to be flawed otherwise you
would see systematic problems through many of the 14,000 branches
[inferring not just those run by postmasters who just happened to also have
financial difficulties?]. I have to say that the contents of my report should not
have been disclosed but hopefully no harm has been done in this case.
What the article did not say was that I had a couple of similar cases a year or
two previously where I did examine the Post Office Horizon computer system
in more detail. I concluded then that the system was essentially straight
forward and could be considered to be an “Excel spreadsheet” with a fancy
front end. There were unlikely to be such substantial and regular errors on
the Post Offices part limited to only a few individual cases — however the
apparently disadvantaged postmasters failed to consider the most obvious
facts:
1. The deficit typically grew by a few £1000 per week over a few months.
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2. The deficit was discovered by a Post Office audit that would probably be
triggered by the increasing funds drawdown compared to usual.
3. The postmaster was responsible for reconciling his accounting system with
the Post Office daily and weekly. Any deficiencies should be reported
immediately so that they could be sorted (the Post Office would often bear a
loss in this way).
4. The postmasters knowingly carried forward an increasing error by
falsifying returns — failing to report the differences.
5. Whether or not the postmaster stole the money, a member of staff stole it
or it was negligently overpaid regularly to customers of the branch in error —
the fact remains that the postmasters were responsible for reporting
problems to the Post Office and because they allowed the error/loss to mount
up — they were responsible for it — either as criminals or incompetents.
In the most recent case that was being reported I had been asked by the
barrister to advise the defendant in conference of my findings and as a result
he pleaded guilty to false accounting — in return the prosecution dropped the
theft charges for which he would I am sure have been convicted. His
sentence was accordingly much lighter. 12 weeks in prison against probably
a couple of years at least.
Hopefully this was a just outcome. If he had been convicted of theft he would
have face confiscation proceedings for the £40,000 and given the nature of
the alleged offences may even have endured the lifestyle assumptions.
Clearly the postmaster had little in the way of assets and if he had defaulted
on the confiscation his whole term in prison could easily have reached five or
even more years!
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Appendix 12 - Gartner Report
C:\Documents and
Settings\peter.stanle
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Appendix 13 —- Internal Audit Assurance Review of Key System
Controls in Horizon
al.)
C:\Documents and
Settings\peter.stanle
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Appendix 14 — UK Central Government Key Influencers
nfluencers
Figure 8. U.K. Cer
Research/Sourcing Firms Publications
Government Agency Sources Information Age
Public Technology
ComputerWeekly
Guardian Computing
Technology Reforms
Governm 4 Technology & Voluntary
Decision 4 a Consortia
Makers
Inteliect
Forum for the Future
‘Socitm
Source: Gartner (November 2011)