Letter from jail finally reveals 30-year double life of fraudster businessman

However behind this facade David Bradford was a fraudster, helplessly addicted to gambling and endlessly lusting after cash and, in his own words, “stung by the power of money”.

The fraudulent Sheffield financial controller was so successful in his subterfuge that he hid his secret life of desperate gambling and deceit from his family for 30 years.

That was until he was sentenced to two years for fraud as he desperately tried to cover his losses.

The startling revelations came in the form of a letter he wrote from jail to explain his double life.

In a repentant handwritten note from behind bars, the former chair of governors at a city infant school, who was paid £71,000 a year in his role for a healthcare supplies company, said he gambled “like it was an Olympic sport”.

Bradford said that a love of money led to a mountain of debt which sparked his pursuit of a quick “win”.

“This is my truth,” he said.

“I am a fraudster. 
“I am a gambler, maybe a compulsive gambler.

“I discovered money talked and those dreams on the horizon could be brought closer.

“The ‘money bug’ was a disease idolised by all.”

He continued: “I became a keen follower. I did not have to look far to find a bank or organisation that would lend me money and it seemed this was the way one bettered oneself.

“I was swallowed down this tunnel to a point where I could only borrow money to finance the repayments of earlier borrowing, a self-perpetuating and self-defeating spiral of debt.

“I never shared the state of my debt ridden life - not with my family, not even with myself.

“Along this journey of deceit I took to gambling - firstly as a way of making a quick win to kill this mountain of debt and then, as it failed to live up to those expectations, it became an escape with potential to cure my money ailments.” Mr Bradford, who was jailed in April, said his life had been shattered by his experiences and made an emotional appeal to anyone falling into a similar situation to seek help and support at the first sign of trouble.

Further in his letter he remarks: “Now my family do not trust me and all my good points count for nothing.

“My friends have retreated and are ashamed even to call me an acquaintance.

“My colleagues, my MP and most who know me have put a big distance between me and them. I would do the same if I was them.

“My sentence extends to a family distraught, a family set to lose everything now. My friends’ views of me are tainted and I am damaged forever.

“If anyone sees a little piece of themselves in my story may I offer them this advice - never lie.

“Seek help and support at the first sign of trouble.”

Bradford’s wife Denise and his three children had no idea of the serious trouble the 58-year-old until his court case.

They now face losing their home in Sheffield and say their lives have been left in turmoil by the revelations.

His son Adam, 21, a young city businessman, has launched a campaign calling for tighter regulations and control of the online gambling industry to protect those suffering from compulsive behaviours.