A former Tayside fire chief “didn’t think it was wrong” to place a winning £500 bid for one of his own brigade’s Land Rover Defenders in an auction he was running, a court has heard.
Stewart Edgar is accused of fraudulently purchasing the vehicle, which was being sold off after reaching the end of its service life, using a third-party company to put the bid in on his behalf.
Birmingham Crown Court has heard an allegation Edgar also dishonestly turned down a rival £8,250 bid for the 17-year-old Defender vehicle, after telling a colleague he had always wanted a red Land Rover for his daughter’s wedding.
Prosecutors have claimed 53-year-old Edgar, the former head of Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service, on £120,000 a year, abused his post to commit the fraud in 2018.
The Arbroath-born former area manager of Tayside Fire and Rescue was the lead fire officer dealing with fire and rescue service planning for the G8 Summit at Gleneagles.
‘Silly FOI stuff’
The court previously heard how Edgar sent a text message in April 2018 to a contact at a third-party firm, which later placed the winning Land Rover bid on his behalf, saying the arrangement would be “cleaner” and stop any “silly FOI stuff”.
Edgar has told the court he was currently on “a lot of medication” for mental health issues connected to his long service as a firefighter, adding he had seen “hundreds of dead bodies” and suffered a “breakdown”.
Jurors heard he had started to suffer “flashbacks” within “18 to 24 months” of taking on the leading role at the Gloucestershire brigade, which he joined in 2014, and was “not in the right frame of mind” for the job at the time the sale happened.
Under cross-examination on Tuesday, Edgar was asked by Robin Shellard, prosecuting, if he had considered any “conflict of interest”.
The Crown’s barrister asked: “You saw no conflict of interest in phoning up a supplier to get them to bid for you on your behalf, in a bid-tendering process in which you were going to award the bidder the win?”
Edgar replied: “At that stage I didn’t think it was wrong.
“But I did eventually take responsibility and I resigned from my post because I felt as though I had made a serious error of judgment.”
He added: “At the time I thought it was OK, and no conflict of interest.”
‘A fair bit of reflection’
Edgar was also asked about how he had given differing accounts of how the sale had come about to various senior colleagues, once the matter was made subject of an internal investigation.
He replied: “I’ve done a fair bit of reflection and I’ve been working with my psychologist about these episodes, and my psychologist has said it is normal when you’re in a sort of flight mode to not tell the truth.”
Mr Shellard then asked: “It isn’t a question of not telling the truth – what you told was an elaborate and deliberate lie, you see, which is different from not telling the truth?”
Edgar replied: “When you experience trauma, even the most lucid of minds becomes a labyrinth.
“I was all over the place, my mind was all over the place, and I wasn’t thinking straight and I wasn’t giving straight answers.”
Edgar also denied knowing how a colleague, who knew his chief officer was placing a bid, had been able to tell the only other bidder they had lost, half an hour before the sale’s deadline.
The jury has heard that the auction bids were what are known as sealed bids, in envelopes, meaning the winner should only have been known to all parties once the bids were opened, after 4pm.
When asked how his colleague could have known Edgar’s was the winning bid before the deadline, Edgar replied: “I have no idea.”
Edgar told jurors he had been diagnosed with depression since resigning – a decision brought about by an internal investigation into the Land Rover’s sale.
He said that in a conversation with fire authority bosses, he was “given an ultimatum by the chief executive: resign or be dismissed”.
“I lost my job, my reputation, everything,” he added.
Advice
The Defender had started life as one of the brigade’s water rescue vehicles, before a spell on loan to trading standards, when Edgar became aware in March 2018 it was being sold.
The former firefighter said he asked his fleet manager if it was “within the rules” for him to bid, claiming he was told it was “possible”.
He said: “I thought I was receiving good professional advice.”
Edgar, of Braehead Drive, Carnoustie, Angus, denies a single count of fraud by abuse of position alleged to have been committed between April 1 and May 1 2018.
