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Other Applications 383

Example : ‘I am Bill Jones from internal audit and I appreciate your seeing me. As you know, we
are investigating a case of suspected fraud in accounts payable. I understand that you handle
maintenance of the vendor master file and have worked for the company for the past five
years. I would like your help in understanding how the system operates and any problems
you have had. Our meeting, which is in total confidence, will take around an hour. In cases
like this it is vital that we find the truth, so that we can all get on with our lives. So can you
please tell me everything you know about x?’

Chances are the subject will ask for clarification and you should keep this to a minimum,
so that you get a pure version.

Example : ‘I don’t know, Sam, you are the expert. Just go over it in any way you want. How it
works, what you have seen going wrong, anything about the current case. Just let it all hang
out.’

The witness’s freestyle story is likely to contain the following elements:

• background or context applying to the story as a whole;
• clarification including his reasons for doing things, excuses and assumptions;
• emotions, including the way he felt throughout the time period concerned or in individual

scenes;
• scene, topic or event detail.

In each of these aspects, the witness’s recall is likely to be less than perfect, sometimes for
reasons other than pure memory degradation. Try to identify the reasons why a witness is
being less than open: is it a memory problem or something else?

A CASE IN QUESTION employee, called Robin Blind, appeared to
be behind the scam. The problem was that
More than two million pounds were his name and biographical details were false.
electronically transferred from the accounts Undercover investigation and intercepted
payable system of a British company. communications established that employees
Investigations, some five months later, working in accounts payable and in the
indicated that standard settlement wire transfer room were innocent and were
instructions hade been amended and totally devastated that they had reacted
false vendor files created. All of the to instructions from Mr Blind without
documentation had been destroyed and checking.
there was absolutely no audit trail. However,
investigations suggested that a temporary

Let the witness complete a freestyle story uninterrupted

Detailed reporting: CI tools and techniques

When the freestyle approach has been exhausted, move into the next phase and provide the
subject with as many memory retrieval cues as you can. In an interview with an employee in
the Robin Blind case, cues might be introduced as in Table 9.9.