Day 202 - 11 Jan 96 - Page 15


     
     1
     2   Q.   The clock card matter, so far as you were concerned,
     3        Sally Spurgeon was the person who was investigated; is that
     4        correct?
     5        A.  Yes, because it was her access code that they used to
     6        go into the files to alter the clock cards.
     7
     8   Q.   Right.  No action was taken against anybody else?
     9        A.  We could not prove who had done it.  It is, you know,
    10        when you investigate something like this you have to
    11        interview everyone there; and for any disciplinary action
    12        to be taken, you have to be convinced that it is fair and
    13        right.  So, in the end, because she had given other people
    14        access to her access code, anyone could have accessed those
    15        files and changed it, so it was difficult to find out
    16        exactly who had done it.
    17
    18   Q.   She was disciplined, though?
    19        A.  Yes, but disciplined because of the fact that she, you
    20        know -- part of the written procedure is that you keep your
    21        access code to yourself, precisely so that if someone was
    22        to do something that was dishonest, then it could be traced
    23        back to the person and not have a situation arise like this
    24        where crew had been defrauded out of money, and we could
    25        isolate the individual responsible for that.
    26
    27   Q.   But there was no evidence against any particular other
    28        person?
    29        A.  No.  It was not until Ray admitted that he cheated the
    30        crew out of their money.
    31
    32   Q.   So, at the time, there was absolutely no evidence
    33        whatsoever of dishonesty by Ray Coton?
    34        A.  At the time, we could not prove who was dishonest.
    35
    36   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You have to distinguish between -- there may
    37        have been evidence, I do not know.  But what the witness is
    38        saying is that they could not prove who had done it.
    39
    40   MR. MORRIS:  Right.
    41
    42   THE WITNESS:  It is fair to say that there was not sufficient
    43        conclusive evidence for us to act against Ray on this one,
    44        or to anyone else that could have had access to Sally's
    45        code and done that.  It just would not have been fair.
    46
    47   MR. MORRIS:  Mark Davis would have had Sally Spurgeon's code,
    48        would he not?
    49        A.  I would have hoped not, no.
    50 
    51   Q.   He was the Supervisor at the time, was he not? 
    52        A.  He was the Supervisor at the time, yes. 
    53
    54   Q.   Sorry.  I am just little bit all over the place here.  In
    55        Mr. Skehel's statement -- I will just read it out.  For the
    56        record, it is paragraph 11 on page 12.  It is talking about
    57        one or maybe two occasions you were at those meetings, at
    58        the end of Mr. Coton's time at McDonald's, and that you
    59        reviewed the key indicators about the restaurant and
    60        Ray Coton not coping.

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