POL00073790 - Email from Carol Ballan to Alan Lusher incl email chain about the Grange Post Office

Evidence on official site

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Message

From: Carol Ballani_ GRO
Sent: 07/02/2013

To: Alan Lusher {

Subject: FW: 1031406 The Grange Post Office

Attachments: image001.jpg; image002.gif; image003.gif; image004.gif; image005S.jpg; image006.gif; image007.jpg; image008.jpg;
image009.jpg; image010.jpg

Alan, I need to pick your brains on the matter below please .
There was an audit there this week and the PM is still carrying this loss, which I'm told you were involved with the initial

enquiry . It's recorded on all( not sure how many ) the audit reports since 2008 but there's is nothing on the EFC about it

Neil has provided a bit of detail and asked Michael to see if there is anything he can add, but he hasn't come back . Andy
Winn was also involved at some point , but nothing seems to have happened .

Any assistance would be appreciated as I think its about time this was resolved especially as he’s now looking to go over
to a Main

Regards

Carol Ballan -Agent Contract Advisor- Area 8
South East & London Surrounds

2"4 Floor,6-16 New York Street, Leeds LS2 7DZ

From: Neil Thorneycroft

Sent: 06 February 2013 12:09

To: Carol Ballan; Michael D Johnson

Ce: Paul I Smith

Subject: FW: 1031406 The Grange Post Office

Hi Carol.

The only thing I have on this office is the below. Michael Johnson ( who sits next to me } took this on board. No idea if
we were able to resolve anything.

MICHAEL,

Is there anything you can provide for Carol re this office.

Regards
Neil

Neil Thornegeroft I Postal Officer National Lottery

Ik, CHE RE >, S49 IPF

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From: Neil Thorneycroft

Sent: 15 October 2012 16:53

To: Andrew Winn

Cc: Alan Lusher; Andy Baker1; Robert N Atkinson; Michael D Johnson
Subject: RE: 1031406 The Grange Post Office

Hi Andy.

The office rings a bell with both me and Michael but we can’t remember specifics. Michael will take this query on board
for you.

The term stock write-off is displayed on Horizon when a Postmaster has to accept scratchcard TC’s. Don’t know if this
applies to other stock.

Regards
Neil

Weil Phomoyerofe
POL BLT ( Lottery )
Chesterfield
Tef

From: Andrew Winn

Sent: 15 October 2012 16:16

To: Neil Thorneycroft

Cc: Alan Lusher; Andy Baker1; Robert N Atkinson
Subject: FW: FAD: 1031406 The Grange Post Office

Neil

Now I’ve read this a bit more carefully I can see he is also talking about 2008 TCs. Can someone do me the
Camelot/Horizon exercise so I can show him where the errors are?

Thanks

Andy

From: Andrew Winn

Sent: 15 October 2012 16:11

To: Alan Lusher; Neil Thorneycroft

Cc: Andy Baker1

Subject: FW: FAD: 1031406 The Grange Post Office

Hi

Alan — bit of a memory stretcher this one but can you recall anything about an instruction to “enter as Stock write
off’? {don’t actually know what is meant by that.

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Neil ~ the tes from 2008 are not even on the customer account but can you have a quick(ish) check to see if we ever did
any analysis on these way be back then? I’m not going to try to justify the TCs — but will have a look to see if i can see
any stock adjustments.

Andy — this will not be timing. I’d risk a full SOp wager that he has stock adjusted to get his scratchcards right in OOH but
accepted the TCs in AA and not bothered to adjust back down — gain in OOH and no loss, until you come in, in AA.

Andy

From: Andy Baker1

Sent: 15 October 2012 15:35

To: Andrew Winn

Subject: FW: FAD: 1031406 The Grange Post Office

Hi Andy

Please see below email from SPMR Kevin Palmer of The Grange PO [103140]. I tackled this from a seratchcard
perspective as I believed that he was overstated by around £1500.00. On contacting him he agreed that he was
overstated due to the reasons he details below and the attached PDF’s. I think this may be a timing issue prior to PING

being rolled out as, if he was late remming in his activations then he would receive an auto TC from Camelot.

if you could have a look and let him/me know how you wish to proceed I would be very grateful [especially in the light of
doubts around my tact and diplomacy!]

Many thanks and kind regards

Andy Baker

Risk and Loss Prevention Analyst — Post Office Limited
Ground Floor, West Block, 1 Future Waik, Chesterfield $49 1PF

Fees a agua

the exire

From:
Sent: 08 October 2012 17:17
To: Andy Baker1

Subject: Fwd: FAD: 1031406 The Grange Post Office

Dear Mr Baker, please see the email below and attachment as requested.
Apologies for late response, its been extremely busy here today.

Best Regards
Kevin

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Sent: Fri, 5 Oct 2012 13:32
Subject: FAD: 1031406 The Grange Post Office

Dear Mr Baker

Further to our telephone conversation the other day, please find attached a PDF file showing the lottery scratch card error
notices received and the paperwork from when the auditors visited.

Background:
(I have run the Post Office here for just over 4 years now (Feb 2008) and have recently agreed to be a Main Post Office
with a second site visit due in 2 weeks. Great news.)

When I took over there was 3 days training from a guy called Michael Opebie (ill never forget his name and you'll see why
as you read on). He taught me that the Lottery figures were to be put through every Wendnesday and NOT daily as I was
to find out to my cost. Cut a long story short I had a visit from the Auditors in April 2008 showing the discrepancies for
non entry of scratch cards/lottery. This as I thought was normal practice until told otherwise by the Auditors. I had a
written warning and a visit from Alan Lusher. As far as I was concerned I wasnt doing anything wrong as I only followed
the training given by Michael. The auditors cleared all my stock to the required levels, I had the money on the premises so
there was never an issue with that it just hadnt been put on the system. This was all recorded and signed by myself and
Alan Lusher. From this date - 9th April 2008 - the scratch card holding figures were correct as audited and signed by
myself, see PDF file and dates.

From this date they set me up in an OOH stock unit for Lottery only and showed me how it should be done, daily. To this
very day I have only ever used the OOH stock unit for my lottery figures and will continue to do so for ever more. I have
only ever used the stock figures from OOH stock unit and based all my figures on these.

However as you can see and have raised, there is a large amount of scratchcards sitting on my AA stock unit, used for
everyday transactions in the Post Office. This was a result of an error notice received in July some 3 months AFTER the
audit and related to figures from Feb - April 2008. I called straight away when I received this error notice and spoke to
Alan Lusher himself, he couldnt understand why I had received this error notice either and told me to enter it as a Stock
Write Off as it would be dealt with in house as the Auditors had confirmed my figures and that this error was nothing to
concern me. This was over 4 years ago and to this day I have never been able to resolve this issue. I have EVERY bit of
paperwork for EVERY days lottery showing my figures are based on OOH stock levels. If you picked any random date
over the last 4 years since that audit I could produce my figures. Since the audit and my warning I vowed I would keep
every piece of paperwork, written or verbal as I never wanted that situation again as I love this job.

The PDF files may seem hard to explain on here but basically the dates on the top show when I was audited, when the
error noticed arrived, who sent the error notice and when I queried it.

There was another 3 instances of error notices received in and again these were queried due to the fact that all the entries
that were meant to be on my system actually were and I have all the paperwork for them too, these dated in April, May
and June 2011, a co incidence that I would make an error 3 times in a row over 3 consecutive months, bearing in mind
there were no error notices prior too or since. I attach the file showing the cross reference but havent scanned every
transaction at this point.

From the AA stock unit @ 3rd October 2012 and the Trading Period report it shows a disrepancy to my OOH stock of
quite a few scratchcards. Any error notice I receive I always drill down before hand and query if I feel its wrong or make
good where necessary. As far as I am concerned there shouldnt be ANY scratchcard figures on AA stock unit.

I hope this can resolve this issue and if you need any further information from me then please do not hesitate to contact
me. I am happy to co operate fully. At this moment in time I have 2 members of staff on holiday and have few hands on
deck or time,hence the late response for which I apologise.

Best Regards
Kevin

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