Ex-cop named as Epsom “bugger”

Freelance photographer Bradley Ambrose – up to his neck in the Epsom “cuppa tea” bugging investigation – has been identified as a former policeman.

But he would not confirm to the National Business Review if he and another former policeman Brad White were one and the same person. 

If you have further information, email NBR reporter Jock Anderson.

Mr Ambrose repeatedly told NBR he was “not giving interviews today” before hanging up. A senior government source had suggested to NBR that Mr Ambrose and Mr White may be the same person or associated and said the matter needed to be clarified.

Mr Ambrose, a regular supplier of footage to the Herald on Sunday and TV3, was behind the audio recording of Prime Minister John Key’s much-publicised meeting with Epsom ACT candidate John Banks.

The recording device, left in a small pouch on the table Mr Key and Mr Banks chatted at, was thought by both politicians to belong to the other.

Details of what is on the approximately eight-minute long recording have not been disclosed, although speculation is rife among political rivals as to whether it was a bland chat or something more Machiavelian.

Mr Key yesterday complained to the police over the covert recording of the conversation, accusing the Herald on Sunday of News of the World tactics.

NBR understands copies of the secretly-recorded conversation are in the possession of the TV3 and the Herald on Sunday and are sought by the police.

Mr Ambrose was identified as a former policeman by the Taranaki Daily News, where he worked as a photographer in 2008 and 2009.

A senior government source told NBR there was serious concern over Mr Ambrose’s role at the Epsom meeting.

Recording other people’s conversations without their knowledge or consent is an offence.

No stranger to confrontations with the police, Mr Ambrose alleged an Armed Offenders Squad member “attacked” his camera when he was filming in Mt Albert in August 2009.

Working for TV3, he filmed the AOS going into a house before alleging an AOS member came across the street and ripped the battery pack from his camera, which deleted the footage.