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POL00103161
Message
From: Jane Macleod
on behalf of
Sent: 15/04/2016 16:
To: Tim Parker: 4
Subject: Post Office - Chairman's enquiry and related matters
Tim
Its Friday so here is my fortnightly update:
Chairman’s review
e Deloitte are continuing to work with Fujitsu on the IT and accounting issues. A workshop was facilitated yesterday,
at Fujitsu’s offices in Bracknell, so that Deloitte could put their remaining questions to Fujitsu’s SMEs, before
reporting on what more could now reasonably be done to address the complaints that had been raised, in respect of
the IT system.
¢ Brian Altman QC has advised that it could be an abuse of process to charge theft without evidence only to secure a
conviction for false accounting. If sufficiently serious, such an abuse could undermine the safety of the false
accounting conviction. To see whether there is any evidence of such a practice, we are instructing Brian to review
the 19 cases in the Scheme where applicants pleaded guilty to false accounting only, having originally been charged
also with theft .
Bond Dickinson (the external law firm investigating allegations that our Helpline may have provided incorrect advice
to applicants to the Scheme resulting in a loss to accounts) have prepared their draft report and the
outstanding queries have now been answered. The report is therefore being finalised with a final version expected
next week. We understand that no evidence to support the allegation was identified.
Sparrow
On Wednesday afternoon we received a letter from Freeths solicitors advising that they have lodged a claim in the High
Court on behalf of some 91 claimants. They have not as yet served the claim on us and we therefore remain unsighted
on the grounds of the claim, who it is brought on behalf of, or the remedy they are seeking. We have reactive
communications in place and have advised key stakeholders — including BIS. Pending receipt of the actual claim it is
difficult to take things much further at this stage. I will update you if/when we have greater information, although we
anticipate that we will received the actual claim within the next 2 weeks.
Meeting with the Minister
In light of the threatened litigation (and on which we would expect Lord Arbuthnot to have been briefed by the JFSA) we
need to be very careful about what is said by the Minister to Lord Arbuthnot - whether in a 1:1 or in any other forum.
We are discussing this with BIS officials and will revert. To that end we will carefully consider the positioning of your
meeting with her on 27 April.
As ever, please let me know if you have any questions.
Kind regards,
Jane
* Jane MacLeod
General Counsel
Ground Floor
20 Finsbury Street
LONDON
EC2Y 9AQ
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