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POLTD/1112/0228
OFFENCE (s)
1. Theft — Contrary to Section 1 (1) of the Theft Act 1968
2. False Accounting - Contrary to Section 17 (1) of the Theft Act
1968
3. Fraud by false representation (Fraud Act 2006 — Section 2)
4. Fraud by failing to disclose information (Fraud Act 2006 —
Section 3)
5. Fraud by abuse of Position (Fraud Act 2006 — Section 4)
Name: Grant Ian ALLEN
Rank: sub postmaster Identification 1
Code:
Office: Winsford FAD Code 338 442
Age: Date of Birth:
Service: 6 years 1 Date Service 28 January 2006
months Commenced:
Personnel Printout: At Appendix: C
Nat Ins No:
Home Address: GRO
Suspended: Suspended on the authority of Gary Adderley
~ Contract Advisor
To be prosecuted by: Royal Mail Group (including Post Office
Ltd)
Designated David Pardoe, Senior Security Manager
Prosecution
Authority:
Discipline Manager: Glenn Chester - Contract Manager
Post Office Ltd
Legal & Compliance Team
These papers refer to a shortage in the accounts at Winsford Post
Office branch. Mr Grant ALLEN the identified person named in the
pre amble of this report is the sub postmaster and there are a
number of there are seven other members of staff employed.
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The papers were assigned to Stephen BRADSHAW Security Manager on
23 February 2012.
The personnel file and P356 data was requested and can be found in
Appendix C at the rear of this file.
The stakeholder notification was prepared and sent to the
Stakeholder. I have also spoken with the Stakeholder and advised
him of the current situation.
The branch is a former Crown Office situated in a retail park
close to the A54 High Street. The retail side consists selling a
small amount of groceries, confectionary, cigarettes and
newspapers.
An audit was undertaken at the branch on Thursday 24 February 2012
and conducted by Richard CROSS Field Support Advisor of the
Network Support Field team. Mr CROSS was accompanied by his
colleagues, Rob LYON, Jane TIMMS, Paul HAYHURST and Tim GORDON-
POUNDER. The purpose of the audit was to verify assets due to Post
Office Ltd and confirm compliance with a range of Business,
procedures and regulatory requirements.
The auditors arrived at the branch at approximately 08:00 am and
were allowed access to the secure area by Mr ALLEN.
At approximately 08:40 am Mr ALLEN asked Mr CROSS to accompany
him to his office. Mr ALLEN admitted to Mr CROSS that the stock
unit he used would be in the region of £10,000 short. He further
stated to Mr CROSS that he was having financial difficulties and
had been unable to make good the shortages in the accounts and he
had inflated the cash on hand in the hope that he would receive an
over scale payment from Post Office Ltd to make good the
shortages. A record of this conversation was made and Mr ALLEN
refused to sign the Record of Conversation (RC/1) confirming what
he had stated to the auditor.
The branch operates nine stock units for counter services and the
branch does not operate an ATM. The Office snapshot for KK stock
unit indicated cash of £17885.85 (SB/7) was in the Stock Unit and
a copy of the last cash declaration (SB/6) done by the branch
showed £15,769.85 was the amount of cash declared as being in that
Stock Unit branch.
The final result of the audit on the day was a shortage of
£13,076.25 of which £12,967.80 is in the cash with further
outstanding debt of £4,735.24 in respect of outstanding debt of a
disputed invoice.
A breakdown of the Audit findings, are set in the table below.
Amount Comment
£ 12,967.80 (-) Identified as a shortage difference in the
cash figures
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£ 55.26 Identified as a shortage difference in the
(-) stock figures
£ 1.65 Identified as a surplus difference in the
(+) postage figures
£ 54.84 Discrepancy as per office snapshot
(=)
£ 13,076.25 Total Audit Shortage on day
£ 90.00 Outstanding transactions corrections not
(-) processed
£ 4,645.24 (-) Outstanding debt previously settled
centrally
£ 17,811.49 Total debt owed to Post Officer Ltd
Mr ALLEN declined the offer to double check the findings of the
audit cash.
The Contract Advisor Mr Gary ADDERLEY made a decision to
precautionary suspend Mr ALLEN. The branch has since been
transferred to an interim sub postmaster.
Mr ALLEN was contacted on 27 February 2012 and stated that he was
going to see his solicitor and that he had other issues with Post
Office Ltd regarding data protection.
Mr ALLEN was again contacted on 28 February 2012 and confirmed
that he had seen his solicitor and the request for him to attend a
voluntary taped interview under caution was discussed. He further
said that his solicitor had advised him not to attend until he had
seen their Civil Litigation solicitor on 15 March 2012 as the
solicitor thought there might not be any criminal case due to the
data protection issue.
Mr ALLEN was again contacted by letter and informed that he if he
did not reply further advice would be taken. Mr ALLEN contacted
this office on 11 April 2012 and the interview was arranged for
Thursday 19 April 2012 in Salford as Mr ALLEN was in the area.
Prior to the interview / search taking place a PORA was completed
and a copy can be found in Appendix C of this file.
On 19tf April 2012 I attended at Royal Mail House Clippers Quay
Salford M50 3NW accompanied by my colleague, Andrew WISE, Security
Manager. We introduced ourselves to Mr ALLEN and our identity
cards were shown and the reason for the interview was explained to
Mr ALLEN.
Interview with Grant Ian ALLEN
At 11.10 Mr Grant Ian ALLEN was interviewed at Royal Mail House
Clippers Quay Salford M50 3NW. Present throughout the interview
was Mr Andrew WISE Security Manager. Mr ALLEN declined the
presence of legal representation and form GS001 (Identifying Mark
SB/1) was completed, signed and dated by Mr ALLEN and is
associated at Appendix B. Mr ALLEN also declined the offer to have
a Post Office friend present. (Identifying Mark SB/2) was
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completed, signed and dated by Mr ALLEN and is associated in
Appendix C.
The interview was taped recorded, covered two tapes and sealed
with master tape seals 073554 and 073555 (SB/12 and SB/13). A
typed tape summary (SB/14 and SB/15) has since been prepared, a
copy of which is now at pages 11 to 31. The working tapes are
associated in Appendix B of this file. I have retained the Master
Tapes. A notebook entry of the interview was made and is
associated in Appendix B of this file (Identifying Mark SB/16).
During the interview Mr ALLEN confirmed that he had taken over
Winsford Post Office branch in November 2009. He became sub
postmaster and retained a Post Office Manager and Deputy Manager.
The Post Office branch was run under the company name of Allcoc
Ltd.
Mr ALLEN said that they relocated in March 2010 and the cost of
the refurbishment / move and other costs amounted to approximately
£100,000. He further said that during the first four weeks after
the move, the branch was not “running at full capacity” as the
works carried out by ROMEC were not up to standard and a number of
terminals had been wired incorrectly.
Mr ALLEN said that between the period of November 2009 and March
2010 he had to make good losses in the region of £1400 and this
amount can be seen in his business accounts.
Mr ALLEN explained that during the period of March 2010 and April
2010 there was a discrepancy in the accounts of £3,000, he said
that he had checked all the paperwork but could find no
explanation for this discrepancy. He then made admissions that
this £3,000 was never made good and had been rolled over from each
Branch Trading Period to the next until the audit took place in
February 2012.
Mr Allen’s explanation for this discrepancy was that due to the
relocation of the branch the Horizon system was not communicating
(ie Polling) and the data on the Horizon system was not being
sent.
Mr ALLEN also explained that for each subsequent Branch Trading
Period, unless the discrepancy in the accounts was small (for
example £50) the discrepancy was added onto the original £3,000
discrepancy from March / April 2010.
Mr ALLEN said that they use to roll over from one balance period
to the next so he could see how the branch was performing and they
completed the Branch Trading Statement at the end of each
balancing cycle.
He further explained that when completing the Branch Trading
Statement the discrepancy in each individual Stock Unit would be
rolled into the next Stock Unit and the final discrepancy would be
associated in the stock unit of either John (the Post Office
Manager) or Karen (the Deputy Post Office Manager).
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Mr ALLEN then stated that he would remove cash from his stock
unit, that he confirmed was Stock Unit KK and give the money to
either John or Karen to cover any discrepancy shortage. He said
he did this to make the cash correct in all the other stock units
and for him to carry the discrepancy.
Mr ALLEN then made admissions that he inflated the cash on hand in
his stock unit to achieve a balance. He further stated that he
would put the approximate amount of the discrepancy onto the
unusable notes line when making his daily cash declarations.
It was said to Mr ALLEN that in 2010 the branch Horizon system
would have been upgraded onto Horizon-on-Line and migrated after
March 2010. It was further said that he would have been informed
that a check of all the cash would be undertaken by the migration
officer.
Mr ALLEN was asked that when the migration took place 2010 was the
cash in the branch correct. He said because there were a number of
Stock Units to be checked and only one person checking. He then
made admissions that after one Stock Unit or the safe had been
checked he would move the money from this stock unit / safe to his
Stock Unit KK to ensure that the money purported to be in his
stock unit was correct.
Mr ALLEN denied stealing any money belonging to Post Office Ltd
and it was said to him that he had falsified documents by
inflating the cash on hand via the mutilated notes. When asked if
he knew it was wrong to do this, replied that he did not
It was said that the majority of the cash discrepancy (£11705) was
attributed to his Stock Unit and Mr ALLEN said that was due to
moving the cash out of his Stock Unit to cover the previous
balance shortages. He also explained the final balance prior to
the audit there was a discrepancy in the region of £1400 and he
would have moved this amount of cash from his Stock Unit to the
Stock Unit showing the discrepancy. This operation did not take
place due to the audit.
Mr ALLEN also explained that the £4645.24 of outstanding debt was
the cost incurred by relocating and the payment was due to ROMEC.
He further said that he had not paid this bill because he was in
dispute with ROMEC as the work carried out was not to the required
standard.
Mr ALLEN confirmed that Record of Conversation (RC/1) was correct
and that he said that he did not sign it because of they way it
was explained to him by the auditor.
Mr ALLEN was shown a re printed cash declaration for Stock Unit KK
(SB/3), a balance snapshot for Stock Unit KK (SB/4) and an extract
from the auditors electronic P32 report (SB/5). It was explained
that the cash declaration (SB/3) was the amount of cash he had
previously declared showing £7,000 of unusable notes, the balance
snapshot (SB/4) showed that the amount of cash that should be held
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in Stock Unit KK is £17,885.85 and the P32 extract (SB/5) showed
the actual amount of cash held in Stock Unit KK was £6180.85.
He agreed that difference between the balance snapshot (SB/4) and
the P32 extract (SB/5) was the amount of cash short in his Stock
Unit KK.
Mr ALLEN was shown six reprinted cash declarations (SB/6 to
SB/11). He admitted that the cash carried forward for the branch
and the cash carried forward for Stock Unit KK had been inflated.
For example on SB/6 the amount carried forward was £25,331.85 and
the amount of cash carried forward for Stock Unit KK was £6604.12.
He confirmed that this was the case on all six Branch Trading
Statements that he had been shown.
The shortage or surplus amount indicated on the cash declaration,
for example on SB/6, a surplus of £51 is how the branch would have
been performing if the cash had not been inflated. He confirmed
that this was the case on all six cash declarations.
Mr ALLEN was asked when the money could be repaid and replied that
he was in not in a position to repay at this present time as he
had put all his money into the business venture. He did say that
he has an ongoing claim against his landlord and his solicitor
said that he had a very good case. He said that from the expected
compensation he would repay the outstanding amount due to Post
Office Ltd.
At the beginning of the second tape, the tape machine was switched
off to obtain permission to proceed with the interview without a
Solicitor being present as Mr ALLEN indicated he was not sure if
he wanted a solicitor after being told that a criminal offence had
been committed.
At 12:28 David PARDOE Senior Security Manager verbally gave
permission for the interview to continue. Form POL 002 was
completed and the interview resumed at 12:07.
The interview was concluded at 13:05 and master tape seals 073554
and 073555 were completed and signed.
Mr ALLEN did agree to a voluntary search of the address where he
and his wife are staying. However the search did not take place as
the property was his mother-in-laws and was approximately 200
miles away from the place of interview. Post interview this was
explained to David PARDOE Senior Security Manager who concurred
that in this case it was appropriate that the search was not
undertaken.
Mr ALLEN did give permission for Authority for Bank Disclosure of
Information and took away a number of the relevant POL 045 forms
to be completed and returned.
Forms NPAO1 and POL 033 have been completed and copies can be
found can be found in Appendix C of this file.
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To summarise:
Mr ALLEN denied stealing Post Office Ltd money.
Mr ALLEN admitted inflating the cash on hand to cover the
discrepancies.
Mr ALLEN has admitted falsifying the branch accounts for the
period of April 2010 to 2 February 2012.
> Mr ALLEN has not repaid any outstanding money.
> Mr ALLEN co-operated throughout the interview.
Vv
Vv
Business and Procedural weakness’
“ During the course of this investigation I have not identified
any failings in any security procedures other than the fact,
that for whatever reason, Mr ALLEN admits to altering his
cash declarations.
In_ Conclusion
Mr ALLEN is a married man living with his wife
I They have two
children.
Mr ALLEN became the incumbent sub postmaster in November 2009 and
said that in the period up to March 2010 he made good losses of
£1400.
Mr ALLEN said the branch relocated in March 2010 and for the
period of March 2010 to April 2010 he stated they had losses of
approximately £3,000, these losses were not made good.
Mr ALLEN said that in all subsequent branch balances (April 2010
to February 2012) any shortages in the accounts were added to the
initial £3,000. However he did say that if the shortage was a
small amount (for example £50) then he would put this money in.
Mr ALLEN said that all the shortages from each individual Stock
Units would be rolled into either the Post Office Manager or the
deputy Post Office Manager. He would then take the money fro his
Stock Unit and give the money to the Post Office Manager or deputy
Post Office manager. He would then carry the loss.
Mr ALLEN made admissions that he had inflated the cash for a 21
month period but denied theft. He could not explain the shortfall
in the cash on hand at the branch but thought the losses were
linked to faults within the Horizon system; however she could not
produce any evidence to satiate her claim.
Mr ALLEN said that he was not in a position to repay the
outstanding amount, but he was suing his landlord and expected to
win the case and the money would be repaid from this compensation
received. He also stated that he had sold his house and car and
was living in the Post Office for a period of six months prior to
his suspension.
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Post interview the Non polled report for the Horizon system was
requested after the branch relocated. The report shows that an
engineer attended on the 16*® and 17*® March 2010, the engineer
completed a base unit build and BT fixed a fault. A copy of the
report can be found in Appendix B of this file.
A telephone call was also made to the Branch Conformation Team and
they report that they had not been contacted in relation to any
£3,000 discrepancy.
The call logs were also requested from the National Business
Support Centre (NBSC) for the period of March 2010 to 23 April
2012. No calls are listed in connection with any discrepancies at
the branch.
An abridged version of this report has not been produced for the
discipline manager. Mr ALLEN’s contract was terminated by letter
under the terms and conditions of the Company Franchise Agreement
between Post office Ltd and Allcoc Ltd.
Copies of all documents or exhibits mentioned in this report can
be found contained within the appropriate Appendix of this file,
the originals are held at this office. This report in addition to
the summary tape transcripts have been sent electronically to the
Post Office Security Team Casework Management Team via the generic
address on 25 April 2012.
The evidence based on my analysis of the Branch Trading Statements
and Horizon print out logs would appear to support the fact that
Mr ALLEN has committed fraud, having dishonestly made false
representations in the accounts namely the Branch Trading
Statements for Winsford Post Office branch for the period of April
2010 to 02 June 2011 to the sum of £11,705.00.
It should be noted that the outstanding debt to Post Office Ltd is
£17,811.49; however, the cash discrepancy in Mr ALLEN’s Stock Unit
amounted to £11,705. The remaining discrepancy in the audit was
explained as follows by Mr ALLEN; £4645.24 is an outstanding debt
and is a disputed invoice due to unsatisfactory work carried out
by ROMEC. The difference in the cash figures is as a result of the
last Branch Trading Statement shortages being held in the Post
Office Managers / deputy Post Office Managers Stock Unit and not
being given the money as previously described by Mr ALLEN.
The remaining discrepancy stock and postage figures are spread
across all Stock Units.
At this stage I have no reason to question the reliability of any
likely witnesses, should statements subsequently need to be
obtained in this case.
At this present time there are no further outstanding enquiries to
be made.
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These papers are now submitted for the present position to be
noted and for consideration as to whether the evidence is
sufficient to support a prosecution. No doubt the file will be
returned in due course with the next appropriate course of action
to be taken.
Please feel free to contact me should you require any further
information or clarification on any of the points raised in this
report.
Stephen Bradshaw
Security Manager
Post Office Ltd Security Team
01 May 2012
y Mobile I (Mobex
bA Royal Mail House 3'4 Floor Clippers Quay Salford M50 3NW
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