Man who investigated post staff over Horizon says he wasn’t ‘technically minded’
A former Post Office investigator has told the Horizon scandal inquiry hewas not ‘technically minded’ to consider that shortfalls were the result of a software malfunction rather than postal staff.
Stephen Bradshaw was asked why after being shown articles about issues with the software in 2010, he did not consider that it was a technical issue in the system.
In response to asking why he didn’t ‘pause for thought’, Mr Bradshaw replied: ‘When you would speak to the person being interviewed, you would take that into account. You would do your best to find what the issue was.’
The inquiry lead asked him: ‘You had been told by your equals that there had been newspaper articles, that there was a growing body of cases, but that in itself was not sufficient for you to question the reliability of the Horizon system?’
He replied: ‘Because I’m not that technically minded. I would expect that to come from people above. If there was an issue… I would expect the Post Office to let us know what the issues are.’
The lawyer for one victim, former postmistress Shazia Saddiq, told Mr Bradshaw he had ‘hounded’ his client – a claim which he denied.
Mr Bradshaw also said he had ‘never threatened’ anyone with prosecution, and did not tell any postmasters or postmistresses they ‘were the only one’ in trouble.
Throughout today’s inquiry, Mr Bradshaw reiterated that his role was to gather evidence and give it to the Post Office solicitors.
More than 700 sub-postmasters received criminal convictions for allegations such as theft and false accounting after faulty IT used by the Post Office made it appear money was being stolen.
Yet some victims who were affected still fighting for justice to this day – leading to a recent outcry for more to be done after an ITV series brought the case back to the nation’s attention.
Following the release of the drama, writer Gwyneth Hughes – who spent three years researching the story – said that she was ‘completely astounded’ by the response, adding that ‘the postmasters are ecstatic’.
‘None of us expected this. I thought it was quite a niche story which would get respectable viewing figures but I was completely wrong,’ she said, The Guardian reported.
The public inquiry into the controversy is currently still ongoing, with the Metropolitan Police recently confirming that the Post Office is under criminal investigation.
Scotland Yard said officers were ‘investigating potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions’, for example, ‘monies recovered from sub-postmasters as a result of prosecutions or civil actions’.
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