A Post Office investigator has denied claims he and others “behaved like Mafia gangsters” who tried to collect “bounty” from subpostmaster victims with threats and lies.
Hundreds of Post Office branch managers were convicted of swindling money on the basis of evidence from the tech giant’s flawed Horizon accounting system.
Investigator Stephen Bradshaw told the public inquiry on Thursday that he denied the allegation “that I am a liar” and said he was not equipped to know whether there were bugs in the Horizon IT system.
The inquiry heard a statement made by Jacqueline McDonald – who claimed she was “bullied” by Mr Bradshaw during a probe into her alleged £50,000 shortfall, and also accused Post Office investigators of “behaving like Mafia gangsters”.
Ms McDonald pleaded guilty to theft after an audit found there had been a shortfall of over £94,000. In her interview with Mr Bradshaw, Ms McDonald was accused by the investigator of telling him a “pack of lies”.
The counsel to the inquiry Julian Blake said the witness’s words sounded “somewhat like language you might see in a 1970s television detective show”.
Responding to Ms McDonald’s allegations of his aggressive behaviour in his witness statement, Mr Bradshaw said: “I refute the allegation that I am a liar.”
He added: “I also refute the claim that Jacqueline McDonald was bullied … Ms Jacqueline McDonald is also incorrect in stating Post Office investigators behaved like Mafia gangsters looking to collect their bounty with the threats and lies.”
Throughout his witness statement, Mr Bradshaw said his investigations had been conducted in a “professional” manner.
The investigator – employed by the Post Office since 1978 – told the inquiry he was not “technically minded” and was not equipped to know whether there were bugs or errors in the Horizon system.
The witness began giving evidence on Thursday after being involved in the criminal investigation of nine subpostmasters, 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 subpostmistress Rita Threlfall of asking her for the colour of her eyes and what jewellery she wore before saying: “Good, so we’ve got a description of you for when they come”, during her interview in August 2010.
The investigator said any knowledge of flaws with Fujitsu’s Horizon software not been “cascaded down” to investigators from the IT giant or the Post Office board.
“I had no reason to suspect at the time that there was anything wrong with the Horizon system because we’d not been told,” said Mr Bradshaw.
But he admitted that he had been told by colleagues about newspaper articles highlighting problems with the Horizon system.
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Mr Bradshaw said a 2012 statement signed by him declaring the Post Office’s “absolute confidence” in the Horizon IT system was written by lawyers from the law firm Cartwright King.
Asked if it was appropriate for him to declare “confidence” in the system, he said: “In hindsight…there probably should have been another line stating, ‘These are not my words’.”
It has also emerged that investigators were handed cash bonuses for every conviction of a branch manager during the scandal.
Alan Bates – the campaigning subpostmaster who featured in the ITV drama on the scandal – condemned the “horrendous” culture of financial rewards.
Toby Jones played campaigning subpostmaster Alan Bates in ITV drama
