The team had a target to recover 40% of the losses recorded – and their annual payouts were dependent on the amount of money they got back under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
In an email sent in 2015, Gary Thomas, a Post Office investigator from 2000 to 2012, wrote that the company was missing its profit targets because “we stopped getting £XX million [sic] from bloody good financial recoveries”.
The long-serving employee also said in mocking emails that there was “no case for the justice of thieving sub-postmasters”.
He said of campaigning postmasters: “We were the best Investigators they ever had and they were all crooks!”
Thomas last year admitted to the Post Office Horizon inquiry that his investigations into sub-postmasters had been fuelled by “bonus objectives”.
He had been lead investigator in the case of Worcestershire sub-postmaster Julian Wilson, who was wrongfully convicted
in 2008.
Mr Wilson died from bowel cancer in 2016 at the age of 67, five years before he was cleared of stealing £27,000.
His widow Karen said she believes the stress caused by his wrongful conviction contributed to his illness.
Cleared sub-postmistress Della Robinson, 56, said: “I didn’t know about the bonuses. I think it’s disgraceful, all of it.”
Thomas admitted his “crooks” email was “absolutely disgraceful” and said he was “embarrassed” about his presumption that the sub-postmasters were guilty.
Victim and campaigner Alan Bates slammed the “appalling” bonuses, saying: “The Post Office seems to have a bonus culture running right through it.”
