| A judge has issued a warrant for the arrest of disgraced former Co-operative Bank chairman Paul Flowers, from Salford, after he failed to appear at court for his fraud sentencing |
Paul Flowers, 74, 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.
However, today (Friday 14 February), Manchester Crown Court heard that Flowers had “disengaged” with his legal team, although a solicitor had contacted him on Thursday night to explain the consequences of not attending court.
A number of preliminary hearings in the case were previously aborted when Paul Flowers cited health problem.
And in November 2023 another crown court judge issued a similar warrant when Flowers did not appear as scheduled.
Judge Dean noted the defendant had “fragile mental health” but that an immediate custodial sentence could be “almost inevitable” for an offence over a sustained period involving a “vulnerable victim”, which he said may explain why the defendant had not attended.
Flowers who 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 as was fined £400.
Flowers had stood down as chairman of the Co-Operative Bank earlier that year, 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 the “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.
It was also found that Flowers used his work email account to send and receive sexually explicit and otherwise inappropriate messages, and to discuss illegal drugs.
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