Sentence date set for former Co-op Bank boss Paul Flowers after admitting £100,000 fraud

A sentence date has been set for a former Co-op bank boss who previously admitted a catalogue of fraud worth almost £100,000.

At a hearing in July this year, Paul Flowers, 74, pleaded guilty to 18 charges after abusing his position as the executor of the will and holder of power of attorney of a woman named Margaret Jarvis, who is understood to have been a friend of his.

He admitted withdrawing about £70,000 of her money in cash, and using about £34,000 of her money to buy goods and services.

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He used Ms Jarvis’ money to make payments of £415 and £1,046.50 to the Wine Society, payments to P&O Cruises of £840 and £486, a sum of £491.34 to Holiday Extras, £341,33 to Hotel Domenico in Corfu, £980 to Eurostar, £1,275 to Gekay Carpets Limited, to pay for floor coverings in his own house, as well as payments of £56 and £47 to the Royal Exchange theatre in Manchester.

The frauds he admitted totalled more than £180,000, but Manchester Crown Court heard that Flowers had submitted a basis of plea in which he accepted fraudulent activity totalling just under £100,000. Prosecutors accepted the basis, and described his crimes as a ‘gross breach of trust’.

Today, December 12, Flowers was excused from attending a mention hearing at Manchester Crown Court, where a sentencing date was set for February 14, 2025. A presentence report was also ordered to be prepared by the probation service to assist the court.

Flowers, a former Methodist minister, was chairman of the Manchester based Co-op Bank between 2010 and 2013. He was forced to step down from the post amid allegations that he bought and used illegal drugs, as well as claiming inappropriate expenses.

Flowers, who was a councillor in Rochdale from 1988 to 1992, was later fined £400 after pleading guilty to possessing cocaine, ketamine and crystal meth, and was dubbed the ‘crystal methodist’. He also faced accusations of incompetence after the Co-operative Bank was found to have a £1.5bn black hole in its finances.

Around that time, Flowers, who also helped oversee Rochdale social services at the time of an alleged Satanic abuse scandal in Middleton, gave an interview to Jeremy Paxman on BBC’s Newsnight programme.

He said: "I am in company with every other human being for having my frailties and some fragility exposed. Most people get through life without that ever coming into the public domain. But, of course I have sinned in that old fashioned term, which I would rarely use, I have to say."