Post Office Investigator Lisa Allen describes pre-Horizon Computer Systems Echo and ALPS that she used on a Post Office Counter from 1992 as well as details surrounding her training in the role of an investigator at the Royal Mail and the Post Office. She describes a three week residential course upon taking up the role of an investigator at the Post Office but recalls that only one day of Horizon training was given. She says that she didn't have an formal investigator training or experience prior to taking up her role as a Post Office Investigator. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeInvestigator

Post Office Investigator Lisa Allen INSISTS Job Cuts in the Security Team throughout her time there DIDN'T Impact on the Quality of investigations insisting that they maintained the requirements and standards set out by the Compliance Team at the Post Office. Despite this, she does concede that they were extremely busy and the evidence presented from managers regarding one 'headcount reduction' confirms that the jobs they were doing were not surplus to requirements. Nethertheless, numerous posts were identified to be made redundant to aid 'efficiency' and keep the Post Office 'sustainably profitable'. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeInvestigator #LisaAllen

Post Office Investigator Lisa Allen says that Horizon evidence ALONE was INSUFFICIENT Evidence to interview a subpostmaster under caution in contrast with what some previous investigators have told the Post Office Inquiry. Lisa Allen says that is subpostmasters had reasons why there might be a shortfall an interview under caution wouldn't be performed. She highlights that prosecutions against subpostmasters would not proceed if a contracts manager 'agreed' to accept a repayment of a shortfall from a subpostmaster and that she didn't believe it was right to launch a prosecution against a subpostmaster who hadn't been at least suspended even if not yet dismissed. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeInvestigator #LisaAllen

Post Office Investigator Lisa Allen explains the Legal and Disclosure Duties of her investigator role at the the Royal Mail Group and the Post Office. She discusses her role as a Disclosure Officer and the distinct duties that came with such a role. She also discusses the duties of an investigator to investigate both lines of enquiry supporting the allegations as well as those against the allegations including an example where she successfully identified evidence that undermined an initial allegation following an interview with a subpostmistress. However, she doesn't remember any formal training on how these duties were implemented in practice and instead details how she had to rely on herself. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeInvestigator #LisaAllen

Post Office Investigator Lisa Allen tells the Post Office Inquiry that ARQ Data Requests were routinely REFUSED by Post Office Casework Managers if there were large amounts of data being requested on the grounds of costs - even when the data was specifically requested by defence teams as part of disclosure. Lisa Allen confirms that each ARQ request for 30 days would count as one request so even requesting a single month containing 31 days would constitute 2 requests according to Fujitsu's Horizon contract with the Post Office. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeInvestigator #LisaAllen

Post Office Investigator Lisa Allen MISSES Opportunity to Investigate wider Horizon balancing issues in the case of Suzanne Palmer who was under investigation following on from an error notice indicating £2,500 worth of missing scratchcards that the Post Office said had been activated but there was no money for. Suzanne Palmer explains a long history of Horizon issues related to balancing and that most normally sort themselves out quite quickly - £100 up one week and £100 down the next week. However, this issue was inexplicable to the subpostmaster and she was repeatedly asking for help from the Helplines, evidence which the investigators obtained, but despite this was receiving stock lines from the Post Office about bringing the error notices to account. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeInvestigator #LisaAllen

Post Office Investigator Lisa Allen ADMITS Investigation Failings to the Post Office Inquiry on reflection of the case brought against Suzanne Palmer where a jury took less than 35 minutes to deliver a 'not guilty' verdict on all counts of False Accounting brought against her whilst working at The Grange Post Office. Lisa Allen discusses that ARQ data should have been requested and also discusses the integrity of such data after an issue, sometime later, was raised with duplicate transactions from the Horizon system. Whilst admitting these failings, she says that she doesn't think it would have impacted the outcome of the investigation. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeInvestigator #LisaAllen

Post Office Investigator Lisa Allen Makes a False Account Report in the case of Suzanne Palmer in preparation for her Post Office prosecution and is explaining the detail contained within to the Post Office Inquiry. Despite being clearly mentioned on numerous occasions during the taped interview preceding the report, all mentions of any issues with Fujitsu Horizon - including balancing issues - are omitted from the report in addition to any mention of calls to both the Horizon Helpline and NBSC Post Office helpline. But why is this? #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeInvestigator #LisaAllen

Post Office Investigator Lisa Allen tells the Post Office Inquiry about a witness statement prepared for court in the case of Suzanne Palmer who is accused of taking almost £15,000 with the main focus on error notices relating to £2,500 missing related to scratch cards. Following the green light from Jarnail Singh, the case is passed to Counsel who advice that there are several elements required to be obtained including the operating procedures relating to Horizon and scratchcards as well as unanswered questions about the error notices that Suzanne Palmer discusses in her first interview. Lisa Allen discusses the second follow up statement that she made to the court. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeInvestigator #LisaAllen

Post Office Investigator Lisa Allen is asked at the Post Office Inquiry about the SELECTIVE Eventual Data Request that was made to Fujitsu from the Horizon system on the advice of counsel in the Post Office prosecution case of subpostmistress Suzanne Palmer at The Grange Post Office. Despite confirming earlier that data requests were in 'units of 30 days' only 7 days relating to error notices are eventually requested from Fujitsu. But why was this? Call logs are shown to have multiple balancing issues but these were assumed to be unrelated to the scratchcard error notices. How was this determination reached? #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeInvestigator #LisaAllen

Post Office Investigator Lisa Allen explains to the Post Office Inquiry WHY Horizon WASN'T Challenged by investigators even as cases where Horizon issues were raised by the defence topped £1 million by 2010/2011. Lisa Allen said that she felt that investigators were not in a position to challenge expert evidence provided by Fujitsu that Horizon was a robust system and admits that no one in the Security Team at the Post Office held the belief that there were any issues with Horizon. Whilst explaining that this was the thought of Post Office workers at the time, she cannot identify how this came into being. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeInvestigator #LisaAllen

Post Office Investigator Lisa Allen REJECTS Inadequate Investigation Claim which is put to her by Suzanne Palmer's legal team as she takes questions from Core Participants at the Post Office Inquiry. Lisa Allen admits that all reasonable lines of enquiry were not followed however this was much easier to see in hindsight. She does accept that whilst the Horizon issues reported by Suzanne Palmer did not make their way into her investigation report, she says that these were included in the appendix with the transcript of the taped interview with her. #PostOfficeInquiry #PostOfficeScandal #PostOffice #PostOfficeInvestigator #LisaAllen #CoreParticipants