Day 209 - 25 Jan 96 - Page 28
1 room that worked and you might well send somebody up there
2 to go and get it, but you would immediately try and fix the
3 toaster you had downstairs because that toaster was already
4 hot and another toaster would take 20 minutes to heat up,
5 and in 20 minutes you can lose your whole lunchtime
6 business. You know, saying to people, "No, you cannot have
7 a hamburger" was the last thing you wanted to do.
8
9 Q. Can I ask you where these blue plasters were on the
10 toasters?
11 A. Well, I remember a couple of times opening up the back
12 of a regular toaster and finding a blue plaster in both,
13 and just, you know -----
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just over where leads had come loose, or
16 connections, or what?
17 A. Inside where leads had come loose, instead of soldering
18 back on, there have just been running repairs, like I say,
19 a blue plaster had been stuck on to it to hold it to where
20 -- they were not -- I am not talking about cables that
21 were carrying high voltage or anything; I am talking about
22 the little ones that controlled the lights and the timers
23 and stuff. If any of those had come apart, you know, you
24 would open it up, see if there were any loose wires and try
25 and fix it. You know, I fixed a couple myself, and I did
26 not know what I was doing, you know; and all I did was
27 screw them back in. I cannot say I ever used the blue
28 plasters, but I definitely saw them being used. There were
29 a couple of gags about it.
30
31 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause. Yes.
32
33 MR. MORRIS: Just one question on that: would it have been
34 normal for people to look inside a toaster?
35 A. Not normal. It would not be normal for people to take
36 toasters apart or anything, but on a couple of occasions I
37 have done it and I have seen other Managers doing it, if
38 something is broken and it is the only one there at the
39 time, you initially want to try and repair it as quickly as
40 you can.
41
42 Q. What I meant is that -- I mean, it is no secret; other
43 witnesses have said they have not seen the blue plasters.
44 But would it be normal to look inside the toaster or would
45 people just look at the outside?
46 A. No, they would not look inside. It is all covered up.
47 It would only be a Manager that would look inside it.
48
49 Q. Right.
50 A. Because I think Jagon was quite a competent chap, and
51 I have read in the service report it says he is qualified.
52 If he is qualified, I never realised he was qualified at
53 all, but used to be -- you know, he used to be able make a
54 ketchup dispenser out of a toaster, and he, you know,
55 rigged up different things like that for people from
56 stuff. There was lots of broken equipment in the equipment
57 room, and he used to butcher bits of it and make other
58 things out of it that the store needed. It would save on
59 ordering stuff.
60
