by A Post Office investigator denied that he and his colleagues “were like Mafia gangsters” who wanted to collect “bounties with threats and lies” from under-masters.
Stephen Bradshaw, a former Post Office employee, has been accused of bullying branch managers while investigating allegations that money was lost from the accounts.
The criminal cases were based on evidence from Horizon’s flawed IT system, and resulted in one of Britain’s worst miscarriages of justice.
Giving evidence to a public inquiry into the scandal on Thursday, Mr Bradshaw continued to insist his investigations were “professional” and claimed problems with Horizon had not been referred to investigators like him.
Mr Bradshaw was involved in the criminal investigation of nine sub-masters, including Lisa Brennan, a former counter clerk at a post office in Huyton, near Liverpool, who was falsely accused of stealing £3,000 in 2003.
Mr Bradshaw has also been accused by another Merseyside underclassman Rita Threlfall of asking her about her eye color and what jewelery she wore before saying: “Okay, so we’ve got you covered when they come”. during her interview. warned in August 2010.
Another sub-master, Jacqueline McDonald, claimed she was “bullied” by Mr Bradshaw during an investigation into her alleged £50,000 shortfall.
Responding to Ms McDonald’s claims in her statement, the witness said: “I reject the allegation that I am a liar.
“I also reject the claim that Jacqueline McDonald was bullied, from the moment we arrived, the auditor was already on the scene, conversations were first (underway) with Mr. McDonald, the reason for our attendance was explained , Mr and Mrs McDonald were kept up to date. as the day went on.”
The investigator said: “Mrs Jacqueline McDonald is also wrong to say that the Post Office investigators behaved like Mafia gangsters trying to collect their bounty with the threats and lies.”
Asked in an interview when he told Miss Brennan she should “get up earlier”, Mr Bradshaw said: “I’m sorry if you don’t like that terminology, it wasn’t meant to offend her. “
Inquest barrister Julian Blake highlighted an interview with Mrs McDonald in which Mr Bradshaw accused her of “telling a pack of lies”.
He compared the language to a “1970s TV detective show”, but Mr Bradshaw defended his behaviour, saying the interview was not meant to be “nice”.
He added that Mrs McDonald’s legal team had not argued in the trial that the interview was “extensive or offensive”.
Mr Bradshaw, who has been a Post Office employee since 1978, claimed he was not “technically minded” and insisted he was “not told” of problems with Horizon’s IT system.
He also insisted there were “no concerns” about the quality of his investigations.
“It seems that we were not being informed, from top to bottom, of bugs and defects”, he said. “It was not disseminated from Fujitsu, the Post Office board, to our level as an investigation manager.
“I had no reason to suspect at the time that there was anything wrong with the Horizon system because we were not told.”
Mr Bradshaw was shown an email he sent to a colleague in 2010 containing links to early reporting of the scandal, but he insisted again: “I was not told of any problems with the Horizon system.”
In his witness statement, Mr Bradshaw said of each of the nine criminal investigations he was involved in: “There were no concerns, the investigation was always carried out in a professional manner.”
Mr Bradshaw was warned before his evidence began that he has the right not to incriminate himself when answering questions.
He told the Inquiry he now “regrets” signing witness statements for criminal proceedings drawn up by lawyers, who insisted there were no issues with the Horizon system.
He joined the investigations team in 2000, and has been employed by the Post Office for the past 45 years.
Former Post Office investigators told the Inquiry that bonuses were offered for successful prosecutions and money was seized from sub-masters.
Mr Bradshaw told a hearing today that he received bonuses, but denied they were linked to the number of cases he took on.
In a self-assessment in 2010, he told his bosses that he personally intervened in Mrs McDonald’s criminal case when the integrity of the Horizon system was being questioned.
“I opposed counsel’s suggestion and convinced him that a trial would be necessary because the reason given by the defendant (Horizon’s integrity) would have a wider impact on the business if the trial did not proceed”. He wrote.
In his evidence today, Mr Bradshaw described the self-assessment as “a flamboyant way of explaining what happened on the day”.
“At the time it was not proven as far as I can remember that Horizon was so flawed”, he said. “I wouldn’t write it like that now, but it’s a self-assessment of the way a business wanted to do it.”
Mr Bradshaw’s grilling comes a day after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced new legislation designed to sack Post Office branch managers convicted in the Horizon IT scandal.
He told the House of Commons: “This is one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history”, and has committed £1 billion for payouts to sub-masters and their families.
The Government has already paid out around £138 million to over 2,700 claimants on three Post Office compensation schemes.
“People who worked hard to serve their communities through no fault of their own had their lives and reputations destroyed,” said Mr Sunak. “The victims must get justice and compensation.”
In 2019, a High Court judge ruled that there were “bugs, errors and defects” in Horizon’s IT system and that there was a “material risk” that the system caused deficiencies in Post Office branch accounts.
The Public Inquiry, led by retired judge Sir Wyn Williams, was first established in September 2020 and hearings were held in 2022 into the human impact on submasters investigated and prosecuted by the Post Office. But public and media interest in the scandal has been overshadowed by the ITV drama Mr Bates v Post Office.
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk admitted on Thursday morning that the scandal will cost taxpayers “a fortune” and said that if Fujitsu, which designed the Horizon system, was found at fault in the Inquiry the firm should “face the consequences”.
Fujitsu employees and former employees are due to give evidence to the Inquiry next week.
