POL00141225 - Email chain from Sharron Jennings to Juliet Mcfarlane RE: Rainford - Duplication of Transaction Records in ARQ Returns

Evidence on official site

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Juliet Mcfarlane (Respnss >)

From: Sharron L Jennings
Sent: 26 July 2010 11:16
To: Juliet Mcfarlane

Subject: FW: Rainford - Duplication of Transaction Records in ARQ Returns
For info

Sharron Jennings

Fraud Investigator

Post Office Ltd Security Team
3rd Floor, Clippers House
Clippers Quay

Salford

From: Jane M Owen

Sent: 23 July 2010 17:29

To: Sharron L Jennings

Subject: RE: Rainford - Duplication of Transaction Records in ARQ Returns

Sharron
Please see copy of email to Mark from Penny

Mark

1 can now advise that the enhancement to delete duplicated records from our returns has been developed
and is with test and is expected to be deployed on our application on Sunday, 1 August.

Once this has happened we will re-run retrievals where duplication is known to have been present and
report the outcome to you.

We have not yet received confirmation from POL that the proposed workaround for duplicated records is
acceptable; we await your instruction.

Kind regards
Penny

Penny Thomas
Security Analyst, Customer Services

Once this has been completed I have to prioritise all outstanding requests before Penny will undertake the
re-work. Obviously yours is going to be a high priority but I am unable to say at this stage ifthe
information will be available in time for you to submit the committal papers

Any problems please give me aring

Regards

Jane

Jane Owen '
Security Team Advisor Ce
Security Team, Post Office Ltd

Royal Mail, Clippers House, 3rd Floor, Clippers Quay, SALFORD. M50 3NW

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® Post Office HR Hell

Fone PRINT

Confidential Information:

This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged
information. Any unauthorised review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended
recipient please contact me by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

From: Sharron L Jennings

Sent: 22 July 2010 12:19

To: Jane M Owen

Subject: Rainford - Duplication of Transaction Records in ARQ Returns

Hi Jane

I have just received news that Rainford has been sent to Crown Court for Commital on 31%! August. I need to
submit the committal papers by 16!" August 2010.

Can you let me know if I will receive the requested data by this date and also if the data I have already received is
accurate.

Many thanks

Sharron Jennings

Fraud Investigator

Post Office Ltd Security Team
3rd Floor, Clippers House
Clippers Quay

Salford

From: Jane M Owen

Sent: 06 July 2010 10:40

To: Sharron L Jennings

Subject: RE: FW: Duplication of Transaction Records in ARQ Returns

Sharron

Thats why I sent you another email with the password and instructions how to decrypt it - did you not get
that one?

Let me know and I can send it again

Thanks

Jane Owen
Security Team Advisor Oo
Security Team, Post Office Ltd

Royal Mail, Clippers House, 3rd Floor, Clippers
Quay, SALFORD. M50 3NW

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@ Post Office HR Help

Fone PRINT

Confidential Information:

This email message is for the sole use of the
intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential
and privileged information. Any unauthorised
review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited.
If you are not the intended recipient please contact
me by reply email and destroy all copies of the
original message.

Sharron L Jennings

Sharron L
Jennings To: Jane M Owen/e/POSTOFFICE

ce:
05/07/2010Subject: RE: FW: Duplication of Transaction Records in ARQ
16:16. Returns

The attachment came through as a load of gobbledegook I'm afraid.

Sharron Jennings

Fraud Investigator

Post Office Ltd Security Team
3rd Floor, Clippers House
Clippers Quay

Salford
M50 3NW.

From: Jane M Owen

Sent: 05 July 2010 14:16

To: Sharron L Jennings

Cc: Thomas Penny

Subject: Re: FW: Duplication of Transaction Records in ARQ Returns

Hi Sharron

Iam attaching a file which shows how the duplicate entries look on the ARQ requests - they
are at the bottom highlighted in yellow.

Do you know how to decrypt the requests because you will need to do this on the attachment -
I will send you instructions and the password.

Penny has very kindly offered to talk you through this in preparation for the second interview
as I am still just getting to grips with it myself.

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(See attached file: Sample IOP for POL.xls.txt)

Regards

Jane

Jane Owen

Security Team Advisor GORE
Security Team, Post Office Ltd

Royal Mail, Clippers House, 3rd Floor,
Clippers. Quay, SALFORD. M50 3NW

a! GRO I Postline.

@ Post Office HR Help

& PRINT

Confidential Information:

This email message is for the sole use of
the intended recipient(s) and may contain
confidential and privileged information.
Any unauthorised review, use, disclosure
or distribution is prohibited. If you are not
the intended recipient please contact me
by reply email and destroy all copies of
the original message.

Sharron L Jennings

Jane

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Sharron L

Jennings To: Jane M
Owen/e/POSTOFFICE

05/07/2010¢¢:

12:11 Subject: FW:
Duplication of
Transaction Records in
ARQ Returns

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Tow of the offices on the below list are mine. New Cheltenhamand Rainford. Rainford

is about to go to Magistrates court (booked for 20th July). New Cheltenham! am due
to do a second interview (he was arrested and bailed) on Thursday. I-don’t really
understand the below email and wondered if you could let me know what I need to
do. Is the data still okay for me to question him on Thursday?

Thanks

Sharron Jennings

Fraud Investigator

Post Office Ltd Security Team
3rd Floor, Clippers House
Clippers Quay

Salford

M50 3NW

GRO 3 (Mobex - GRO I

From:Andrew Daley

Sent: 05 July 2010 10:51

To: Christopher G Knight; Helen Dickinson; Paul Whitaker; Robert
Daily; Sharron L Jennings; Steve Bradshaw; Suzanne Winter
Subject: FW: Duplication of Transaction Records in ARQ Returns

FYI

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From:Jane M Owen

Sent: 02 July 2010 16:30

To: Jason G Collins; Andrew Daley

Ce: Mark Dinsdale

Subject: Fw: Duplication of Transaction Records in ARQ Returns

Dear Both
Please see email below from Penny Thomas.

Mark, Alan Simpson and myself have had a conference call today to
look at potential problems that this is likely to cause. Firstly the
suggested workaround will need to be put to our Legal Team and until
that has been agreed any further ARQ requests, including those which
have already been submitted, will be suspended.

There are 2 cases currently with the court - West Byfleetand Porters
Avenueand I will speak to Lisa and Jon about these as we need to
know what in the way of ARQs and the corresponding statements have
been presented to court. In addition I have identified the following
offices from the casework spreadsheet as ones that potentially could
have already had information presented to the court. Could you please
confirm whether or not this is the case and also whether there are any
that I have missed as Fujitsu will need to take corrective action.

Riverhead 130/948 New Cheltenham263/511
Fleetville 113/033

Carryduff 186/704

Kirkoswald 250/410

Addiscombe Exchange 055/013

Tudor Parade 189/116

Sidcup 134/014

Stourbridge 150/208

Tresco 386/555

Essex Road201/004

Rainford 300/434 —— Regnretda Safi

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Rinkfield 252/418
Castleton 234/424
Melsonby 279/309

Trealise that this is a lot to digest but if you need to speak to me for
any clarification before you forward to your teams then please give me
a ring. Also can you let me know if you think of any further problems
that this could cause.

Regards
Jane

Jane Owen
Security Team Advisor
Security Team, Post Office Ltd

Royal Mail, Clippers House, 3rd Floor, Clippers Quay, SALFORD. M50
3N

®@ Post Office HR Help I

& BRUNT

Confidential Information:

This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and
may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorised
review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the
intended recipient please contact me by reply email and destroy all copies
of the original message.

Th To: Sue Lowther/e/POSTOFFICE, Mark
Dinsdale/e/POSTOFFICE, Jane M

~ Owen/e/POSTOFFICE

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ce:
30/06/2010 13:33 Subject: Duplicatation of Transaction Records
in ARQ Returns

Sue/Mark/Jane

We have identified that a number of recent ARQ returns contain
duplicated transaction records.

With Horizon counters, the mechanism by which Data is audited
has always worked on the principle that it is acceptable to audit
the same data more than once — in particular if in doubt as to
whether or not it has been previously audited successfully.

The Mechanism used on Horizon to retrieve the data took this
into account and only presented one instance of such duplicate
data in the ARQ extracts.

However it has recently been noticed that the HNG-X retrieval
mechanism does not remove such duplicates and a quick scan
of the ARQs provided to Post Office Ltd since the change to the
new system indicates that about 35% of the ARQs might contain
some duplicate data. A Peak has been raised to enhance the
extraction toolset and remove such duplicate data in the future.
However until the fix is developed, tested and deployed, there is
a possibility that data is duplicated.

The reliable way to identify a duplicate transaction is to use the
<Num> attribute that is used to generate the unique sequence
numbers. This attribute is not currently included in the Excel
version of ARQ data that has been passed to Post Office Ltd in
the past. This will be included in all future ARQs until the
problem is fixed. A workaround, using the <NUM> attribute is
suggested, and a detailed process is attached.

Note that we have identified a scenario with Postal Services

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transactions where multiple, identical mails items are accepted
(ie the Quantity button is set to greater than 1), but Postage
Labels are printed for each individual item. This results in
separate transactions being generated for each item, which are
identical in the ARQ extracts (there is another minor difference
in the raw data apart from the <Num> attribute, but this different
attribute is not currently included in the ARQ extract).

I've put together a spreadsheet detailing affected ARQs, which
is also attached.

Mark/Jane I’ve tried to call you both this morning but I
understand you are both tied up. Please call and we can
discuss.

Kind regards
Penny/Tom

Penny Thomas Tom Lillywhite
Security Analyst, Customer Services Principal Security Consultant

Information & Security Services

Fujitsu Services Retail & Royal Mail Group Account
Lovelace Road, Bracknell, Berks RG12 8SN

Web: http://uk.fujitsu.com

Fujitsu Services Limited, Registered in Englandno 96056, Registered Office 22,
Baker Street, LondonW1U 3BW.

This E-mail is only for the use of its intended recipient. Its contents are subject
to a duty of confidence and may be privileged. Fujitsu Services does not
guarantee that this E-mail has not been intercepted and amended or that it is
virus-free.

(See attached file: Detailed process for removal of duplicate

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transactions.doc) (See attached file: ARQ Report.xls)

9

>>>> ARQ Report.xls attachment was removed from this email <<<<

>>>> Detailed process for removal of duplicate transactions.doc attachment was removed
from this email <<<<

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