Day 005 - 04 Jul 94 - Page 72
1 MR. MORRIS: The question is what kind of pressure.
2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, absolutely.
3 MR. MORRIS: And how much and who is responsible. I mean, if
I just may briefly read out the other shareholdings I am
4 going to rely upon, but Lance Green's statement, his first
statement -----
5
MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you want to put this to Mr. Preston
6 because you think he may under cross-examination make a
concession, please do so. Do not do it because you feel
7 obliged to do it. Mr. Rampton has pointed out it may well
be that Mr. Preston's on the ground knowledge of this case
8 is limited.
9 MR. MORRIS: Yes. I am trying. Mr. Preston is responsible for
the company as a whole and just -- all right, very
10 briefly, I can without reading it all out. Lance Green
does go on to say they have a conversation about
11 increasing sales in his second statement. He is the
second assistant manager, by the way. We are not talking
12 crew members have a chit-chat. In his second statement he
says: "Fatima Heron the restaurant manageress said to me:
13 Jasper has been on the phone asking why we have not been
doing increases and we need to increase sales". Finally,
14 in Fatima Heron's statement, she says: "I received calls
on that subject (which is increasing sales) on regular
15 basis from him (Jasper Maudesly) David Board and Paul
Buckingham. The sales have been decreasing since August
16 or September 91 but the week before this incident the
restaurant had achieved a sales increase. I did not
17 therefore" and they used the "therefore", "feel under any
pressure regarding sales in August/December 91".
18
I am not suggesting, Mr. Preston, you wanted anyone to
19 make a bomb hoax. I am sure you did not.
A. Thank you very much.
20
Q. But we may be making some suggestions from time to time,
21 but I do not assume that is one of the things you would
want to happen. But would you say that here was a
22 situation where people inside the store were feeling under
pressure, people in management positions were feeling
23 under pressure?
A. Well, if you let me describe to you the whole, let us
24 call it, budgeting establishing process involved in
putting together a restaurant's plan, maybe I could save
25 you a lot of aggravation. Can I do that?
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: But I think you had better, then Mr. Morris
can ask a question about that, if he wants to. Give us
27 the bones of it.
A. At the end of the year, typically in the last four or
28 five months of a year, every management team we have will
get together with their appropriate supervisor and do an
29 analysis where they are, and make some projections as to
where they might go in the new calendar year in terms of
30 sales growth, in terms of the marketing effort they want
to employ to build their business; in terms of their
