Day 203 - 12 Jan 96 - Page 33
1 A. What I was saying was that, yes, if the crew, if crew
2 had told me that they suspected there was an occasion or if
3 prior to that they had not been paid, I would have
4 investigated it, or if I had found any evidence, you know,
5 I would have investigated it. So, I mean, we paid crew for
6 what -- for any discrepancies in the schedule to their
7 working hours that they could identify, given the shifts
8 because of the people who brought it to my attention in the
9 first place, if that is not too long a sentence.
10
11 Q. Pause there.
12
13 MR. MORRIS: Did you discuss this matter with Mark Davis?
14 A. No.
15
16 Q. You never discussed it with Mark Davis?
17 A. Not to my recollection, no. I do not think I did.
18
19 Q. You paid out -- is it £1,300?
20
21 MR. JUSTICE BELL: 1,200, I think
22
23 MR. MORRIS: 1,200, is it -- to six to eight crew for four
24 weeks, about four weeks, for a period; yes?
25 A. Correct. It was charged to the payroll for the
26 Colchester restaurant, so when I say I paid out, the
27 Company paid out.
28
29 Q. Yes, I understand that.
30 A. OK, fine.
31
32 Q. Well, that is about something just under £40 for each
33 person, something like that. Would that be about right?
34 A. I cannot remember the exact details. There may have
35 been one or two who had more or there may have been one or
36 two who had less, you know. There may have been one
37 individual who was an hour short. We worked it from both
38 ways: we asked them, but we also told them, you
39 know, "Your hours were not correct on this evening; they
40 were changed. I am going to reimburse you for the money.
41 I apologise on behalf of the Company."
42
43 Q. Do you know why this practice had not been investigated
44 before May 1991?
45 A. All I can say is that it was bought to my attention and
46 I then investigated it. I would suggest that if anybody
47 else had it bought it to their attention, they too would
48 investigate it. If it was bought to somebody else's
49 attention before that date then, fine, they would have
50 investigated it. If it was not brought to anybody's
51 attention at my level before that date, then I guess there
52 was nothing to investigate.
53
54 Q. Was it obvious when you looked at the clock cards printouts
55 that this practice was going on? When you investigated it,
56 you saw the sheets, and was it obvious then; you could see
57 the pattern straightaway?
58 A. Pattern -- well, what you could see was that -- sorry.
59
60 Q. The pattern of docking of one hour, two hours, in a
