Former Co-op Bank boss jailed for three years over £100,000 fraud

Former Co-operative Bank chairman Paul Flowers – who stole nearly £100,000 from an elderly spinster to spend on drugs, holidays and gifts for himself – has been jailed for three years.

Flowers, 74, had betrayed his friend of many years, Margaret Jarvis, to plunder her cash, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Flowers, a former Labour councillor and church minister, dubbed the “Crystal Methodist” after a newspaper drugs sting, had been made power of attorney and executor of the will of Miss Jarvis, a teetotal retired teacher, who never married and had no children.

His public profile helped his friend trust him with her affairs, the court heard.

But as Miss Jarvis’s dementia progressed and she could no longer look after her own money, Flowers began controlling her accounts and using her cash for his own selfish ends, the court heard.

And he continued taking her cash after her death, aged 82, in 2016 in a care home near Amersham, Buckinghamshire.

Flowers, from Salford, Greater Manchester, had admitted 18 counts of fraud at an earlier hearing, amounting to nearly £100,000 over a two-year period ending in 2017.

The defendant was brought into court using a walking stick. He had handed himself in to police after a judge had issued a warrant for his arrest when he failed to appear for his sentencing two weeks ago.

Passing sentence Judge Nicholas Dean KC, Recorder of Manchester, said: “This is a story of betrayal, no less than that. Betrayal by you of an old friend, someone who trusted you, who had every reason to believe she could trust you.

“In truth, you knew all along she could not, because of your own weaknesses and failings.”

Earlier Joe Allman, prosecuting, told the court that Flowers and Miss Jarvis became friends through charity work they were both involved in, building a home for poor children in Johannesburg, South Africa.

They also went on holidays together and in 1995 while Miss Jarvis was still of sound mind she gave Flowers power of attorney to look after her financial affairs if she became incapable, Mr Allman said, adding: “No doubt her decision would have been influenced by Mr Flowers then high-standing in the community, a minister, local councillor and non-executive director of the Co-op Bank.

Miss Jarvis, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, also made Flowers executor of her will in 2004, leaving £10,000 to her two nieces along with the rest of her money to good causes, including the children’s home in South Africa, the Donkey Sanctuary, guide dogs for the blind and deaf and the Methodist Church’s project for homes for elderly parishioners.

But Mr Allman continued: “There was an aspect of Mr Flowers’ life she could not be aware of – which was an addiction to class A drugs among other weaknesses.”

Flowers was dubbed the “Crystal Methodist” after the Mail on Sunday published secretly filmed footage of the then-church minister handing over £300 in cash for crystal meth and other drugs in Leeds in November 2013.

He pleaded guilty at Leeds Magistrates’ Court to possessing cocaine, crystal meth and ketamine, and was fined £400.

By now Miss Jarvis, a once “sprightly” pensioner, had deteriorated and gone into a care home and, unable to manage her money, Flowers took control, treating her account as his own, the court heard.

Flowers opened an account at the Co-op Bank for her pension from her teaching job to be paid into, but this continued until long after she had died and an investigation began, leading to discovery of the fraud.

An analysis of transactions by Flowers showed he had used Miss Jarvis’s money to buy theatre tickets, fine wines, cruise holidays, stays at the Park Hotel in Knightsbridge and tickets for the West End show, Jersey Boys.

He had also spent her money withdrawing cash for shopping, installing a £14,900 bespoke staircase at his home and £1,275 for a carpet.

He also spent money on drugs, the court heard, with only one of Miss Jarvis’s two nieces receiving the £10,000 she had left in her will.

His victim, who had led a frugal life and “stood by him” in the past as an old friend, would be “horrified” at what he had done, the court heard.

Linda Meichtry, one of Miss Jarvis’s nieces, said in a victim impact statement: “I’m shocked he’s committed such a crime against a vulnerable and elderly friend.”

Bob Elias, defending, said Flowers had led a life of “significant achievement” but had suffered a “remarkable fall from grace”.

He said Flowers, a grammar school boy after passing his 11 plus, had “found his vocation” after studying theology at Bristol University and became ordained as a Methodist minister in 1978, later rising to the top in the banking industry, becoming boss of the Co-op Bank in 2010, but had struggled with his sexuality.

Mr Elias continued: “As he became a public figure he found it nigh on impossible to ‘come out’. The persona one has as a clergyman or high official in a bank makes it difficult. That stress or tension was there for much of his life.”

He said the pressure led to his increased use of cocaine, until the newspaper sting revealed his drug use. Mr Elias added: “He will bear with him till the day he dies the sobriquet, Crystal Methodist.”

“It is a betrayal of friendship and trust by him,” Mr Elias continued, “To abuse, squander money on class A drugs to some extent and holidays and staircases. He’s thrown it all away, breathtaking in one sense, tragic in another, despite his character flaws, he got as high as he did.”

A proceeds of crime hearing will be held later in the year to try to recoup some of the money Flowers stole.