POL00070758
POL00070758
W
MARINE DRIVE DECISION PAPER
10.5.2004
Interview with Lee Castleton on Monday 10" May 2004.
Please see interview notes.
My thoughts after the interview with Lee are that he could not provide any evidence
of a computer problem. All the entries on his cash accounts have been double-
checked. The only entry that is incorrect , is that the figure for cash on the system is
not the amount he has in his office. This to me is a loss and not a computer problem.
He repeatedly said that he had not taken the cash. He did not take my advice to go to
individual balancing. Or to produce a balance snapshot each day to check how he was
balancing. He only started to do this several weeks into the large losses. He and his
assistant , Chrissie have said that they spent hours checking transaction logs, but
found nothing to back up the claims of computer error.
Lee would not even listen to the suggestion that a member of his staff may be taking
the money. In my opinion, if you know yourself that you haven’t taken anything, it
must be someone else. So you would be open to suggestions and not discount
anything. Lee has always maintained that it must be a software problem.
Chesterfield and Girobank have no outstanding error notices to issue.
Horizon have checked the software and cannot find any problems.
The day that Lee and his staff were removed from the office, the balances were fine.
The computer equipment Lee and his staff were working with was the exact same kit
that the temps have used. The balances have continued to be fine to this day.
Lee has asked for a lot of information , some of which cannot be provided. I have
endeavoured to help him and provide as much information as possible. There has been
nothing to suggest any problem with the computer system.
Lee asked me to explain the discrepancies at the top of the final balance. I have asked
for assistance from colleagues for this Copies have been sent to Liz Morgan and
Davlynn Cumberland , they have helped me explain the figures on his balance. They
did not feel anything was wrong with Horizon.
Iam also waiting for a reply from the problem management team regarding the
software for the suspense account. Fujitsu may take several weeks to get back with
this information.
My decision.
POL00070758
POL00070758
To summary terminate Lee Castletons contract for services. Due to the large
unexplained losses at his office. There is no evidence to support his theory of software
problems. The office has had no balancing problems since Lee and his staff were
taken out of the office. The computer equipment hasn t been changed , just the people.
There is no evidence to suggest any computer problems.