Post Office investigator’s evidence from ‘Mafia’ denials to ‘threatening’ calls
A Post Office investigator who helped convict innocent postmasters denied claims that he and others “behaved like Mafia gangsters” who were looking to collect “bounty with… threats and lies” as he faced questioning at the public inquiry into the scandal.
Stephen Bradshaw, who has been employed at the Post Office since 1978, was grilled over his involvement in the criminal investigation of nine sub-postmasters who were falsely accused of theft and fraud over financial discrepancies that were in fact caused the faulty Horizon IT system.
One sub-postmistress, Jacqueline McDonald, claimed she was “bullied” by Mr Bradshaw during an investigation into a shortfall of more than £94,000, which led to her being sentenced in 2011 to 18 months’ imprisonment.
The inquiry heard extracts from an interview Mr Bradshaw conducted with Ms McDonald, in which she pleaded: “I don’t know where the money is, I’ve told you.”
The investigator replied: “You have told me a pack of lies.”
Addressing Ms McDonald’s allegations of his aggressive behaviour, Mr Bradshaw said in a witness statement: “I refute the allegation that I am a liar.
“I also refute the claim that Jacqueline McDonald was bullied, from the moment we arrived, the auditor was already on site, conversations were initially (held) with Mr McDonald, the reason for our attendance was explained, Mr and Mrs McDonald were kept updated as the day progressed.”
The investigator added: “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.”
He said he was not “technically minded” or equipped to know whether there were bugs or errors, repeatedly asserting that he was “not an expert” on the Horizon system.
The inquiry heard from other sub-postmasters who had dealt with Mr Bradshaw, including Shazia Saddiq, who said she received “intimidating” calls from the investigator.
Ms Saddiq managed branches in Newcastle before her employment was terminated in 2016 after she was accused of stealing £40,000.
Recalling a date in November 2016, she said in a statement: “Stephen Bradshaw called me and I refused to speak to him because I did not know who he was or who he worked for.
“In that telephone call…he called me a b**** which I found extremely distressing.”
Responding to her statement, Mr Bradshaw called the claims “completely untrue”, denied “hounding” her and insisted he would always say who he was on a phone call.
Throughout his evidence, Mr Bradshaw said his investigations had been conducted in a “professional” manner.
Rita Threlfall, a wheelchair user who managed a branch in Liverpool, said she went to be interviewed under caution by Mr Bradshaw in August 2010.
In a statement read out at the inquiry, she said: “Upon arrival, they left my husband and me in a hallway. We asked for a chair and never received one. I ended up having to sit down on the stairs.
“The interview room was up the stairs. I told them there was no way I could make it up the stairs.
“In order to make it to the interview room, I was placed in a tiny parcel lift.”
Giving evidence, Mr Bradshaw said: “I can only keep repeating that it is not a small parcel lift. It is wheelchair accessible.”
The inquiry heard that Ms Threlfall is “still shaken” by the experience and suffers “crippling anxiety and depression” which “arises in large part from the way in which (Mr Bradshaw) treated her”.
At the beginning of his evidence, counsel to the inquiry Julian Blake asked the investigator: “Do you think that you have given enough thought over the past 20 years as to whether you may have been involved in what has been described as one of the largest miscarriages of justice in British history?”
Mr Bradshaw replied: “It would appear that through not being given any knowledge from top downwards that if any bugs, errors or defects were there it’s not been cascaded down from Fujitsu, the Post Office board down to our level as the investigations manager.
“I had no reason to suspect at the time that there was anything wrong with the Horizon system because we’d not been told.”
Mr Bradshaw also admitted to the inquiry that a statement signed by him declaring the Post Office’s “absolute confidence” in the Horizon IT system was in fact written by lawyers from the law firm Cartwright King.
The statement, signed by the investigator in November 2012, said: “The Post Office continues to have absolute confidence in the robustness and integrity of its Horizon system.”
Mr Bradshaw told the inquiry: “In hindsight … there probably should have been another line stating, ‘these are not my words’.”
The statutory inquiry, which began in 2021 and is chaired by retired judge Sir Wyn Williams, has previously looked at the human impact of the scandal, the Horizon system roll-out and the operating of the system.
It is now probing the action taken against sub-postmasters.
The inquiry was established to ensure there is a “public summary of the failings which occurred with the Horizon IT system at the Post Office” and subsequently led to the wrongful convictions of 900 subpostmasters.
