POL00044553
POL00044553
27" January 2010 Legal Services
3° Floor
6a Eccleston Street
For the attention of Issy Hoqq Victoria
Messrs Coomber Rich LONDON SW1W 9LT
Solicitors
Yard House
May Place
BASINGSTOKE
RG21 7NX
Our Ref: CRM/258932/JSX
Your Ref: ICH/03/06/09
Dear Sirs
REGINA v SEEMA MISRA
GUILDFORD CROWN COURT
TRIAL — 15™ MARCH 2010
I now reply as follows to your request for disclosure:-
Section 8 disclosure — Counsel is drafting his response to the Section 8 disclosure
and will be served on you shortly.
Turning to the further request for disclosure.
Contract
1 I enclose a copy of the Subpostmasters Contract.
2 The prosecution will not answer this enquiry unless the Defence can
explain its relevance.
Training
1 and 2 The only available copies of exactly what was sent to West Byfleet are
still at the Office, you can make arrangements to inspect them there.
3 Copies of these herewith. Confirmation of sales training and FSA
compliance. Performance Standards Assessment, Learning Action
Plan, request for Adult Training, Training requirement for incoming
Subpostmasters.
4 No specific training qualifications, experienced Counter Clerks that have
progressed into the role.
5(a) Michael Opebiyi is the only trainer that fits your description, mobile
© Royal Mail 2002 - Page 1 of 5
Cont...
5(b)
Further enquiries are being made.
Further enquiries are being made.
If a problem occurs with the Horizon, one should phone NBSE and they
will talk one through what you need to do. It is not covered on the course
so that people do not try to correct it themselves.
Investigations
8
We do not understand what you mean by the first sentence of this
paragraph. We certainly do not accept that your Client was misled at
any stage of the investigation. Each year there are a number of
successful prosecutions of Subpostmasters for theft following
deficiencies found in audits. Some of those successful prosecutions
have involved full confessions. We do not understand how the detail you
seek in this enquiry can possibly undermine the prosecution case or
support your Client’s defence.
There appears to have been some confusion here. The Investigation
Officer told the Defence that the Auditors would alert him to any
problems with the Horizon system as they would be using it to complete
the audit. It also goes without saying that if at the interview stage with
Ms Misra she had mentioned problems with Horizon as opposed to staff
thefts then enquiries would have been instigated with the Helpline and
Fujitsu to confirm or dismiss what she was saying.
The Officer has re-checked Adrian Morris's report and can confirm that
no mention of Horizon problems was made. Extracts from his report see
below:
“Ms Misra said that the shortages in the Office were due to previous staff
members stealing from her. She added that the loss had been carried
for over a year. Ms Misra said that when they first took on the business,
they kept on the staff from the previous owner, and left them to run the
Office. She states that after a while she noticed things weren't right and
a theft of £1,000 had been reported to the Police. She added the
members of staff either resigned or were sacked and the losses were
unrecovered. Although only a thousand pounds had been reported to
the Police, Ms Misra said the loss was actually between £89,000 and
£90,000. Ms Misra confirmed that this loss had been carried since
around November 2006. Ms Misra added that they had been paying
money back into the account in order to try and reduce the loss.
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Cont...
10
Ms Misra explained that she would hide the shortages by not only
falsifying the cash on hand figure, but also falsely declaring cash in
pouches or currencies awaiting despatch. When shown Branch Trading
Statements for Branch Trading Period 08, year 2006/2007 dated period
15" November — 14" December 2006 Ms Misra confirmed that the cash
on hand figure of £27,993.73 and currencies awaiting collection figure
declared as £13,070 were both falsified figures. When shown the
Branch Trading Statement for Branch Trading period 02, year
2007/2008 dated period 16" May — 16" June 2007 and the Branch
Trading Statement for Branch Trading period 08, year 2007/2008 dated
period 14'° November — 15"" December 2007, Ms Misra confirmed that
the declared cash on hand figures and currencies awaiting collection
were false figures. Ms Misra confirmed that all Trading Statements since
Branch Trading period 08, year 2006/2007 were false accounts”.
The Investigation Officer explained to the Defence that he has a working
knowledge of the Horizon system but it is not up to the level of a Counter
Clerk who works with the system on a daily basis. That is why the
Officer referred a lot of the questions he raised to one of the Clerks at
the Post Office. As an Investigator they deal with all types of cases and
when they need guidance or advise on a particular fraud they will consult
with Branch Managers, Counter Clerks, Contract Advisors, other
Investigators and external Agencies such as DVLA or Fujitsu to assist
with the understanding of the fraud.
Initial Investigator training comprises of a 4-6 week residential course.
Investigators also receive an ad hoc training at times and are required to
work on the Post Office counter for a few days at Christmas and during
Strike Action.
Horizon System
11
12
13
14(a)
We can understand why you would want to see specific areas of the
Horizon data. Your Expert will want to check his theories against the
relevant data. Your Client will also presumably be able to direct you
through specific types of transactions where she feels errors may have
occurred. We do not understand how your Expert will be assisted by
being presented with a mountain of data covering 5 years.
Horizon has undergone stringent testing before it was installed.
I understand that you will re-consider this request.
These exchanges will have been completed by Touch Logistics who are
our preferred third party supplier for injuring services. They are purely
hardware swaps following a standard set of processes.
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Cont...
14(b)
15
16
17
18(a)
18(b)
19
All the hardware is re-conditioned, they will replace any hard drives that
show as having bad blocks at repair and scrap any base units that are
returned with the same fault three times. When kit is sent back from any
branch, it has its memory wiped and a full software re-load takes place.
The install software is then installed, and the base unit is then uniquely
configured to the FAD Code, it is being installed at when it is taken to site
by the Engineer. A base unit will not work at any Branch if it is simply
taken from one location and an attempt to install is made at any other.
The location of the hardware being installed at this Branch is not relevant
as it is returned to repairer prior to ever being sent out to a new Branch
and will undergo the tests and processes as described above.
Enquiries are being made.
The prosecution are unable to make any promise along the lines
suggested as it would be a clear breach of our duty to investigate
criminal offences.
Noted.
No Interim Report has been served in that case, that nothing yet falls to
be disclosed but that we will keep disclosure in relation to that case
under review.
Enquiries are being made.
We do not understand how the details you seek in this enquiry can
possibly undermine the prosecution case or support your Client's
defence.
The Investigation Officer Jon Longman said he is prepared to meet the
Defence Expert with one or more representatives from Fujitsu to discuss
technical issues and to reach as much agreement as possible. This will
obviously avoid much wasted time. Perhaps you could consider this
point and revert back to me.
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Cont...
(1) In response to the incident number P2830677 a copy of E-Mail from
Robin Thompkins is enclosed sent chronologically — P2830677.
(19(v)) I now enclose a copy of the Error Notices that have been served
on West Byfleet during the Subpostmasters tenure between June 2005
and January 2008.
Yours faithfully
Jarnail Singh
Senior Lawyer
Criminal Law Division
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