Day 202 - 11 Jan 96 - Page 12
1 Tracey Melan (?) was probably right, that she first noticed
2 it in September 1990; and he accepted that the documents
3 that she kept -- which are dated, I think, 28th or
4 29th November 1990 -- did indeed show a systematic and
5 large scale docking of crew's hours.
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am grateful, because I had in mind October
8 1995, so I was a month out in my recollection. It was
9 about that time.
10
11 MR. RAMPTON: Yes, my Lord. There was September, and then there
12 was a gap, and then there were the actual documents for the
13 end of November 1990.
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Thank you. (To the witness) But when
16 Neil Skehel went in in February -- beginning of February,
17 I think it was -- he began to uncover things, one of which
18 was that people had not been paid for hours they had done;
19 and there were incidents of that which had occurred the
20 previous autumn. Can you recall or not now?
21 A. I cannot recall the incidents happening the previous
22 autumn.
23
24 Q. No. Well, it is not right to ask you to draw conclusions
25 always if you are not confident of the factual basis for it
26 all. But if there had been docking of pay, for instance,
27 the previous autumn, which Mark Davis was not party to,
28 there was no more reason why he should not have discovered
29 it than Neil Skehel?
30 A. Yes, that is correct. If it had been going on, it was
31 as likely that Mark Davis would have discovered is it as
32 Neil would have discovered it.
33
34 Q. He should have discovered it, unless he already knew about
35 it? He should have discovered it, should he, or not?
36 A. I do not know how you can assume whether he should
37 discover it or not. If you can recollect, at this time
38 I was unaware that it was happening. That seems to be
39 based on assumptions that it was happening, docking hours
40 was happening, and Mark Davis was unaware of it and
41 Ray continued to do this practice and then, suddenly, Neil
42 stumbled over it. From my point of view, this docking of
43 crew hours is a complete anathema (sic). I never heard of
44 it and, you know, it was not around.
45
46 Q. No one has suggested you did know about it, Mr. Atherton.
47 What I am trying to get my mind round is, when Neil Skehel
48 came in, whatever Mr. Morris puts to you about personality
49 conflicts, he was a very keen and assiduous area
50 Supervisor?
51 A. He was a very good area Supervisor, yes.
52
53 Q. And he discovered it?
54 A. Yes. I would say that he had a greater attention to
55 detail than Mark Davis, and that is perhaps the very nitty
56 gritty of things. That is perhaps why, again speculating,
57 why he would have discovered something like that.
58
59 Q. Yes.
60 A. Again, when you go into a new job, you do have a sort
