WITN05450100
Witness Name: David Patrick
Statement No.: WITN05450100
Dated: 14 September 2023
POST OFFICE HORIZON IT INQUIRY
FIRST WITNESS STATEMENT OF DAVID PATRICK
I, David Patrick will say as follows:
INTRODUCTION
1. Iam a former employee of Post Office Ltd (POL), having joined the
organization in 1980, working with them for over 38 years before leaving in
March 2018.
2. I held the following positions during these years of employment with them:
Counter Clerk / Assistant Branch Manager 1980 — 1992
Auditor 1992 — 1998
Survey Support Manager 1998 — 2002
AML Training & Compliance Manager 2002 — 2006
Field Team Leader (FTL) 2006 — 2012
Field Change Advisor (FCA) 2012 - 2018
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3.
WITN05450100
This witness statement is made to assist the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry
(the “Inquiry”) with the matters set out in the Rule 9 Request sent to me via
email dated 22/08 2022 (the “Request’).
Documents provided to me by the Inquiry for the purpose of assisting in
writing this statement are listed at the end of the statement. I will make
specific reference to documents relevant in the course of this statement.
BACKGROUND
5.
In terms as my role as a an FTL, I was appointed to this position in 2006,
having 26 years’ experience working for POL, visiting branches and managing
staff. The role involved manging a team of Field Support Advisors (FSAs)
who delivered training to Subpostmasters and conducted audits as scheduled
by the central scheduling team. The FSAs were previously auditors and
trainers who were then merged into one team in 2006. As with most of these
positions, they would likely previously have had years of experience of
working and managing at PO branch offices before taking on this role. When
taking on this role, they would have had classroom induction training and
ongoing training sessions as & when procedures and working practices
changed.
All audit process manuals and documents were held centrally, kept updated
and fully accessible to all staff to ensure that they could follow all the required
processes when undertaking their duties.
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7. The planning & scheduling of audits was undertaken by a central scheduling
team. The FCAs would simply carry out the works as supplied by the
scheduling team.
8. Prior to undertaking their scheduled audit activity, the FCAs would ensure that
all the necessary paperwork was put together for recording all cash and stock
at the branch and for undertaking and compliance checks if required. They
would also note the Contract Managers (CM) details in the event any issues
arise that require escalation.
9. In the event of a problem i.e. large cash discrepancy / security issue, the FCA
would contact the CM directly and any subsequent action would be on the
instruction of the CM.
Audit of Astwood Bank Post Office:
10.On 11/09/2008 an audit led by myself and supported by colleagues Kevin
Watkins and Faith Lavender was undertaken at Astwood Bank Post Office.
This was a routine audit as scheduled by the Post Office central scheduling
team. Shortly after arriving at the branch at 8:15, the Subpostmaster Mr Julian
Wilson informed me that there would be a shortfall in monies of around £27k.
and that this was as a result of accumulated shortages over the last 5 years or
so. We undertook a full asset verification (cash & stock check) and found a
shortage of £27,811.98. Mr Wilson was then advised that he should satisfy
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WITN05450100
himself that the figures of the audit team were correct. Therefore, we then
confirmed the differences with Mr Wilson and he confirmed the audit shortage.
As per standard procedure, we contacted the Contracts Manager (CM) for the
branch, Glen Chester, and told him about the shortage. He then informed Mr
Wilson that he would be suspended pending further investigation. I also
notified Graham Brander (Fraud Team Manager) and subsequently Gary
Thomas (Fraud Advisor) to relay these findings. Mr Wilson agreed to allow us
to appoint a temporary Post Office manager to his branch in order to maintain
service at the office. All assets were transferred to the interim manager Sue
Wallace on day of audit and the audit was concluded at 16:45.
1
a
. On the day of audit, there was also a request from Gary Thomas (Fraud
Advisor) for us to obtain a signed statement from Mr Wilson, confirming the
facts around the shortage. We were also asked to obtain an Event Log print
out. Both of these would have been included in all the audit paperwork that
was submitted to the CM on completion of the audit.
12.1 completed an Audit report (POLO0057304 & POL00119086) and Witness
Statement (POL00064118) which are already with and have been provided to
me by the Post Office Horizon Inquiry team The request for the Witness
Statement POL00064118 came from Fraud Team and the wording and
construction of it would have been as instructed by the Fraud Team
13.1 had no further involvement with this case.
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i
14. In terms of the integrity of the Horizon system, people of my grade were
simply guided by official Post Office Communications st the time which
continued to inform us that the system was robust and could not be
chabenged
15.On seeing the subsequent Judgements of the Gour of Appeal. it would seem
‘that there were issues with the Horizon system and thet Fujitsu were aware of
this. Had this been made known years before this, then I'm sure a lot of
innocent, law abiding subpostmasters would not have been prosecuted and
ail the subsequent hardships could have been avoided.
.. _ GRO
Dated: 14 September 2023
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WITN05450100
Index to First Witness Statement of David Patrick
WITN05450100
No. I URN Control Number Document Description
1 POL00032698 POL-0029633 Assurance Review - Recruitment (Vetting &
Training)” (version 1.0, 27 October 2009)
2 POL00086765 POL-0083823 “Network auditing approach, methods and
assurance” (2013)
3 POL00088453 POL-0085511 “Training & Audit Advisor” (undated)
4 POL00088557 POL-0085615 “Audit Advisor” (undated)
5 POL00084650 POL-0081708 “Audit Plan & Scheduling, Chapter 1 of the
Audit Process Manual” (Version 8.0) (2010)
6 POL00083966 POL-0081024 “Audit Charter” (version 4.0, undated)
7 POL00084801 POL-0081859 “Performing a Branch Audit", Chapter 3 of the
Audit Process Manual (version 5.1, May 2010)
8 POL00085534 POL-0082592 “Core & Outreach Audit Process”, Chapter 3a
of the Audit Process Manual (version 1.0, 27
May 2011)
9 POL00087627 POL-0084685 “Follow Up Audit Process”, Chapter 3b of the
Audit Process Manual (version 3.0, May 2015)
10 POL00088252 POL-0085310 “Performing a Cash Centre Audit”, Chapter 7
of the Audit Process Manual (version 5.0, Aug
2016)
11 POL00087672 POL-0084730 “Quality Assurance”, Chapter 11 of the Audit
Process Manual (version 5.0, Apr 2015)
12 POL00084003 POL-0081061 “Post Incident Auditing without Horizon”,
Chapter 14 of the Audit Process Manual
(version 1.0, Nov 2006)
13 POL00084813 POL-0081871 “Condensed Guide for Audit Attendance”
(version 2, Oct 2008)
14 POL00085652 POL-0082710 “Requirement of Network Field Support
Advisors at audit, following discovery of
discrepancy” (version 1.0, Oct 2011)
15 POL00086765 POL-0083823 “Network auditing approach, methods and
assurance” (2013)
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16 POL00087688 POL-0084746 “Training Guide: Compliance Audit Tool” (Sep
2015)
17 POL00087716 POL-0084774 “Training-Aide for Branch Asset Checking”
(version 1.7, Nov 2014)
18 POL00087614 POL-0084672 “Terms of Reference Audits” (version 1, April
2015)
19 FUJ00001894 POINQO008065F “Audit Trail Functional Specification” (version
8.0, 18 October 2004)
20 POL00002841 VISO0003855 Global User Account (September 2016)
21 POL00057304 POL-0053783 Audit report, dated 11 September 2008, sent
to Mr Wilson
22 POL00119086 POL-0119005 Audit report, dated 11 September 2008, sent
to Glenn Chester
23 POL00044692 POL-0041171 Investigation report
24 POL00064118 POL-0060597 Witness statement David Patrick 16 March
2009
25 Judgment of the Court of Appeal in Josephine
LPO!
Hamilton & Others v Post Office Limited
[2021] EWCA Crim 577
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