The family of Nicholas Brandram have denied he was the so-called “Putney pusher” and said he “took his own life after months of immense pressure caused by a Metropolitan police investigation”.
Brandram, 44, was found unresponsive at a property in Chiswick, west London, believed to be his home, on Tuesday evening.
The senior city banker had been arrested in June in connection with an incident nearly 10 years ago on Putney Bridge, in which a jogger shoved a woman headfirst into the path of an oncoming bus.
The Metropolitan police said Brandram had been released under investigation after his arrest.
On Thursday, a spokesperson for the police complaints watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), confirmed the force had referred itself over its prior contact with Brandram.
He said: “We have received a mandatory referral from the Met police relating to prior contact officers had with Nicholas Brandram, who was sadly found unresponsive and declared deceased on 15 September. We are currently assessing the referral before deciding whether further action is required from us.”
Earlier, a statement released on behalf of his immediate family on Thursday said Brandram had taken his own life after “months of immense pressure caused by a Metropolitan police investigation into whether he was the so-called ‘Putney Pusher’”.
His family denied his involvement in the incident and claimed the police had no forensic evidence linking him to it.
They said: “There was no forensic evidence linking Nick to it, no evidence placing him on Putney Bridge at that time, and no credible evidence that he was the man shown in the footage. In fact, the evidence proved the opposite.
“Despite that, the police chose to arrest Nick rather than invite him to attend for interview. They searched his home, and the Met police press team then released information which inevitably led to speculation and Nick being identified in subsequent reporting.”
The family added: “For Nick, the consequences did not disappear. He was left for months carrying the stigma of an appalling allegation which the police themselves clearly recognised was unsupported by the evidence.
“He lived with the shame, anxiety, humiliation, and extraordinary pressure created by a wholly unnecessary investigation.”
They said the police had repeatedly been asked to end their investigation and had been warned about the impact the investigation was having on Brandram’s mental health, saying: “Even then, the investigation was not brought to an end. As a result, Nick is dead.”
The Met has been approached for comment.
Brandram was a director at HSBC and had previously served in the military, reaching the rank of captain.
He was the grandson of Princess Katherine of Greece, who was the great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, the Daily Telegraph reported in 2013, when he was convicted of crashing his Harley-Davidson motorbike into a female cyclist around Hyde Park Corner and driving off without leaving his details.
In an interview with the Citywealth website in March this year, Brandram said he was a senior relationship manager at HSBC Private Bank.
He said: “I usually bicycle into our office in Mayfair from my home in west London. And then from there, can either stay at my desk, go to Canary Wharf or the City, or get on a train or go to the airport. My first meeting is ideally over breakfast and I’m ideally home for bath time. I’m a co-parenting single father with a three-year-old.”
Brandram said his proudest professional achievement was being invited to a Buckingham Palace garden party after military service in Afghanistan, and that the person he most admired was his mother. “She raised three children as a single parent and is the busiest person I know,” he said. “I’ve never met someone with greater moral integrity and courage, as well as resilience and stamina.”
