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DEPKIC DKASUBYUL
STATEMENT OF WITNESS
Criminal Justice Act, 1967, sect 9; M.C Rules, 1981, 1.70)
(Magistrates' Court Act, 1980, s102)
Statement of Eleanor Grace Muriel Nixon
Age of Witness (DOB): Over 18
Occupation and qualifications of witness: Retired Sub-postmistress
This statement (consisting of 2 pages cach signed by me) is truc to the best of my knowledge
and belicf and I make it knowing that, if it is tendered in evidence, I shall be liable to
Prosecution if I have wilfully stated in it anything which I know to be false or do not believe to
be truc.
lam a retired sub-postmistress. I first had a post office in 1969 but subsequently retired from
there after 3 years to bring up my family.
Following my: ight through to retirement
from the Post Office in 2006 we ran various post offices, finishing in Higticliffe in Dorset. We
retumed to Leicestershire on retirement. Towards the end, although my husband was the sub-
postmaster, 1 was working in the post office on a day to day basis
managing the administration.
We were running a post office when the Horizon system was introduced. We were very much
thrown in at the deep end. They had trainers who were not from the Post Office but from the
computer company and they could not answer any queries relating to the Post Office or its
procedures.
We were a busy office with 3 to 4 counters running at any given time and had to be reliant on
our staff and the system.
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OOMDEFKICN SKASUSIUL WVUS/ Ud
In the financial year of 2003/04 I was advised of a deficit in the region of £20000. I asked for
help without success. I thought at first it might relate to National Savings Accounts. The original
system was that, if monies were paid in, a giro slip would be completed which would be
returned to the Post Office cach night. When the system was changed to an on-line system,
initially customers were still producing giro slips. Both the giro slip and the on-line transaction
were bcing processed thereby, incorrectly, doubling the transaction.
{ wrote to National Savings and reccived no help. I rang Chesterfield (PO head office) and got
nothing back. The attitude I was being presented with was very much that I had Jost the money
therefore it was my responsibility to find it
T received a very nasty letter from Bournemouth demanding repayment of the money which I
refused. I was even questioned as to whether I trusted my staf which I did implicitly. I therefore
started going through records on a week by week basis starting with weeks where there had been
a large discrepancy. I could only do a week each night as we were a busy post office, often not
finishing until 6.30pm and much later on balance nights.
Eventually, when going through a week that had been quiet on large transactions, ie. foreign
currency, I noticed a transaction that caught my eye. This provided me with the key and enabled
me to identify that the problem lay with credivdebit cards being recorded as cash.
Tt was my opinion that the layout of the screens caused a problem. It came to my attention that
if, when taking a debit card/eredit card, the clerk inadvertently pressed the cash button rather
than the card button, this would cause an incorrect deficit. At no time were we advised of this.
T rang Chesterfield to advise them that J had found the money. They were not interested. I
therefore systematically worked through records to show the Post Office the amount in question,
the week number and where the problem lay. I wrote to Chesterfield providing them with all the
information. J did not hear anything for a number of weeks. 1 was then contacted by phone by a
woman who told me that she was working part-time for the Post Office and had been asked to
contact all sub-post offices where there were problems. She advised me that she would check up
on my information and correct the problem week by week. Nobody came to see me but
gradually over the following weeks it was corrected until the deficit was removed completely.
The reason I was able to do this exercise was that I possibly kept more records than other sub
post offices did. We were not allowed to take copies of any paperwork or records that were sent
to the Post Office overnight. I therefore used to keep a copy of the daily and weekly readings.
Without keeping a record of daily transactions there is no way possible of subsequently cross
checking this problem. At no time was I ever trained to keep this paperwork. I just did so as a
matter of expericnce.
I have made this statement very willingly because I believe there was a genuine problem with
the Horizon system and other sub post masters were suffering needlessly. 1 am willing to attend
court if possible I
My husband and I retired in 2006, so 1 am unaware of any improvements that may have been
made,