‘Crystal Methodist’ Paul Flowers jailed for defrauding elderly friend out of £100k
Disgraced former Co-operative Bank chairman Paul Flowers has been jailed for three years for fraud after he was found to have taken advantage of a ‘vulnerable person’.
The 74-year-old, once dubbed the “Crystal Methodist”, was suspended as a minister in the Methodist church back in 2013 after he was caught buying hundreds of pounds worth of cocaine and methamphetamine to fuel his drug habit. He was also forced to quit his role at the top of the Co-op bank after a massive £1.5 billion black hole was discovered in its finances.
In July last year, Flowers pleaded guilty to a catalogue of fraud, amounting to nearly £100,000, when he abused his position as the executor of the will, and holder of power of attorney, for a woman named Margaret Jarvis. On February 14, Flowers did not turn up to his sentencing hearing at Manchester Crown Court and Judge Nicholas Dean KC issued a warrant not backed for bail. Three days later, he handed himself in to police and was remanded in custody to be sentenced on Thursday.
Judge Dean said earlier this month that an immediate custodial sentence could be “almost inevitable” for an offence over a sustained period involving a “vulnerable victim”. He was jailed for three years at Manchester Crown Court today after admitting 18 counts of fraud worth nearly £100,000 against the elderly and vulnerable friend.
Flowers, from Salford, was suspended from the Methodist church in disgrace after The Mail on Sunday newspaper published secretly filmed footage of him 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. Flowers vowed to kick his addictions upon his conviction, but in 2017 was described as “out of control” after he was filmed snorting lines as he entertained four naked rent boys during a hot-tub party in his back garden.
Earlier in 2013, Flowers had stood down as chairman of the Co-Operative Bank, a post he had held for more than three years, after a £1.5 billion black hole was discovered in its finances. The former Labour councillor in Rochdale and Bradford was later banned from the financial services industry after the City watchdog found he demonstrated a “lack of fitness and propriety required” to work in the sector. The Financial Conduct Authority concluded he used his work mobile telephone to make a number of inappropriate telephone calls to a premium-rate chat line and used his work email account to send and receive sexually explicit and otherwise inappropriate messages, and to discuss illegal drugs. In 2011, he stepped down as a city councillor in Bradford after “inappropriate but not illegal” adult content was found on his council computer.
Get email updates with the day’s biggest stories