Your tech expert is an idiot if they don’t know how to get into the system, especially a Windows one, when they have physical possession. It’s done all day long.
AZ didn’t want to give another excuse that they “changed someone”, that’s why they formally asked for the password.
I guess you didn't want to answer my question. That's OK. I think we all know that you don't learn much by booting up a system that you don't have the passwords for. You can learn much more by looking at the disk images if they are not encrypted.