I’m not a mafia gangster, says Post Office investigator who helped convict victims as he denies trying to collect bounty
POST Officer investigators pursued those suspected of fraud like mafia gangsters, the Horizon IT public inquiry heard.
Security manager Stephen Bradshaw gave evidence yesterday, denying that he and colleagues behaved like “mafia” bullies.
He was accused of looking to collect “bounty with the threats and lies” from sub-postmasters during his investigations.
Bradshaw, who joined the Post Office in 1978, was involved in the criminal probe of nine workers related to losses connected to Horizon.
Appearing in a black suit with a dark shirt and tie, the investigator got increasingly irate as he defended his behaviour.
He appeared to fail to give a straight answer when asked about bonuses given to investigators who successfully prosecuted workers.
The inquiry heard testimonies from ex-workers who were convicted, including Merseyside subpostmistress Rita Threlfall.
In a written statement, she accused Bradshaw of asking for the colour of her eyes and what jewellery she wore during an interview under caution in 2010.
The investigator is then alleged to have said: “Good, so we’ve got a description of you for when they come”.
Another subpostmistress, Jacqueline McDonald, claimed she was “bullied” by Bradshaw during an investigation into a shortfall of more than £94,000.
In her interview with Bradshaw, which was read to the inquiry, Ms McDonald was accused by the investigator of telling him a “pack of lies”.
The exchange between the pair, read by counsel to the inquiry Julian Blake, included the investigator saying: “Would you like to tell me what happened to the money?”
Ms McDonald replied: “I don’t know where the money is, I’ve told you.”
Bradshaw continued: “You have told me a pack of lies.”
Ms McDonald said: “No I haven’t told you a pack of lies because I haven’t stolen a penny.”
Mr Blake said the witness’s words sounded “somewhat like language you might see in a 1970s television detective show”.
It was also heard that another sub-postmistress, Janet Skinner, was told by Bradshaw to “get up earlier” to keep her branch open.
The stoney-faced investigator, leaning back away from microphones in the hearing room in central London as he answered, gesticulated when defending himself.
It was heard that some workers were “too terrified” to report losses and others were left in tears after being questioned.
When quizzed on this, Bradshaw said: “No, I don’t recall them being in tears at all, I don’t remember them being particularly upset.”
He denied claims he and others acted like “mafia gangsters” and bullies, telling the hearing: “I refute the allegation that I am a liar.”
Responding to one claim he told a worker they couldn’t have legal representation during questioning, he said: “My stance is they are taken out of context.”
At one point, he called himself a “small cog”, and repeated his lack of technical expertise, saying: “I am no expert.”
By 2010, he was aware of media reports about problems with the Horizon IT system, but said he was “not technically minded”.
He said he would have expected “Fujitsu to inform the Post Office, and the Post Office to let us know what the issues are”.
Bradshaw said the Post Office’s legal firm Cartwright King wrote a statement for him in 2012 which defended the robustness of Fujitsu’s faulty system.
The testimony, which was used to prosecute workers, read: “The Post Office continues to have absolute confidence in the robustness and integrity of its Horizon system.”
When challenged yesterday, Bradshaw said he would not have signed-off on his statement if he was told to now.
He said: “If it was done today I would have questioned it.
“I was given that statement by Cartwright king and we were told to put this statement through.
“In hindsight it’s regrettable the statement went through like that, it was wrong, somebody told me to put it through.”
One of Bradshaw’s cases was Lisa Brennan, a former counter clerk at a post office in Huyton, near Liverpool.
She was wrongly convicted of stealing £3,000 in 2003, leading to a spiral of misery that saw her lose her marriage and become homeless with her daughter.
Between 1999 and 2015, the Post Office prosecuted 700 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses based on the faulty Horizon IT system.
The inquiry, designed to “ensure a public summary of the failings” and learn lessons, began in February 2021.
But recent ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office has thrust the scandal back into the spotlight.
On Wednesday, the Government announced a new law to “swiftly exonerate and compensate victims”.
The hearing continues.