POL00048710 - Email from Graham Brander (Post Office) to Juliet McFarlane (Post Office) cc Investigation Team Post Office re Regina v Josephine Hamilton - Documentation query

Evidence on official site

Graham Brander To: Juliet McFarlane/e/POSTOFFICE @POSTOFFICE
, Investigation Team Post Office Ltd@ POSTOFFICE
18/05/2007 11:22 Subject: Re: REGINA v JOSEPHINE HAMILTON - CRM/253367/JMoF
WINCHESTER CROWN COURT
MENTION - 25TH MAY 2007
TRIAL - 10TH SEPTEMBER 2007
CASE NO: POLTD/0506/0685

Juliet

I have looked at the correspondence from defence solicitors and am somewhat purplexed at what they
are getting at.

There is no reason why this documentation should have been taken away by any POLTD employee,
either the audit team or myself.

I assume the defence understands that all PO Branches are fully automated (Horizon). In essence, the
documentation they are referring to, is just office hard copies (printouts) of information Horizon has
sent to Transaction Processing (TP) in Chesterfield, and in some cases clients e.g. most bills are
barcoded or swipe cards are issued. Information (details of all transactions entered etc) is sent down a
Phoneline from each branch at the end of each day when it polis.

As such the audit team only verify the cash, cheques, stock and vouchers to hand with all transactions
conducted within that Trading Period. The transactions info is obtained from Horizon at the branch.
Any errors in transactions are ultimately identified by the appropriate TP Team when PO records are
compared with clients, or when Horizon records disagree with something that was physically
despatched by the branch. e.g. £1,000 of cheques remitted out of branch but only £900 received. If the
branch were unable to prove evidence that they submitted £1,000 worth, then they would be issued
with a £100 Transaction Correction i.e. the difference between amount received and amount claimed
on Horizon.

I did take away a large number of weekly accounting envelopes (see unused items 2 & 8). The main
purpose for this was to try and identify any evidence of the cash being inflated. As mentioned in my
original report, dated 17/05/06, the cash was being listed manually as well as on Horizon up to January
2005. I have not found any manual sheets for any period after the end of January 2005.

In summary, the documentation the defence is referring to, is just hard (office) copies of information
received by TP via a phoneline, when each PO branch is polled at the end of each day. It is also the
same type of documentation that is listed as item 8 in the unused.

I hope this helps.
Feel free to give me a call if you wish to discuss.
K/Regards

Graham Brander
Investigator
Post Office Ltd
14 High Street
Eastleigh

Hants

SO50 5TA

Juliet McFarlane

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