Former Co-op bank boss Paul Flowers (pictured) has been jailed for three years after defrauding an elderly spinster

Greater Manchester Police mugshot of Paul Flowers

Image of Margaret Jarvis, a devout Methodist who believed in helping others less fortunate. After she appointed Paul Flowers as the executor of her will, her trust was betrayed by the former Co-op bank chief and church minister, who blew £100,000 on himself

Flowers, originally from Bradford, had moved to Manchester around this time.

Miss Jarvis died in 2016 and Flowers, who the court heard had struggled to be open about his sexuality, made the funeral arrangements which included a professional photographer who he introduced as his lodger.

Included in the 82-year-old’s wishes for her estate to be divided up between South African orphans, abandoned donkeys and for guide dogs, for research into Alzheimer’s and for those already suffering from dementia.

Instead of helping the needy children, sick and disabled as Miss Jarvis had wished, Flowers blew the cash on Class A drugs which included large amounts of cocaine.

Flowers had initially been left £1,000 by Miss Jarvis, but went on to siphon off much more in a bid to pay for holidays, cruises, a bespoke staircase costing nearly £15,000, a luxury carpet for his flat, wine from the Wine Society, theatre tickets for two for London show Jersey Boys while staying at the Park Hotel in Knightsbridge, and a hotel in Corfu.

In a victim impact statement, a niece of Miss Jarvis said that if her auntie had lived longer then the money would have run out and she would have had to be moved to a different nursing home which would have caused her huge distress. She said that the various charities that her auntie had wanted to support had been deprived of vital funds. The court heard that another niece, who didn’t receive a penny, told how it was completely unacceptable that Flowers had stolen her inheritance and that he should pay it back.

In mitigation his defence barrister Bob Elias told how Flowers had gone on to become a clergyman and then the chairman of the Co-op Bank.

Mr Elias said: ‘This coincided with his escalation of his use of cocaine. He started developing a very serious drug addiction to cocaine.

‘Miss Jarvis had been a true friend, they had gone on holiday together. Her trust was sorely misplaced and he acknowledges he let down his friend very badly. He cared about her very much. That is the fall from grace. It is a betrayal of trust. He squandered the money on Class A drugs and a staircase. It was mainly cocaine. He is a man who is unwell. He has let himself go. He is morbidly overweight and has type 2 diabetes and psychiatric problems. He has a sense of failure and despair at his life. It is a precipitous fall. He is a very unusual man, very few climb high and fall. He has thrown it all away.’

Judge Nicholas Dean KC, the honorary recorder of Manchester, said: ‘This is a story of betrayal. It is a betrayal of an old friend, someone who trusted you and who had every reason to believe she could trust you. You knew all along she couldn’t. You took on the Power of Attorney at a time when you knew that was not the right thing to do. Over a period of time you stole almost £100,000 first of all from Margaret Jarvis and then from her estate. You did not use those funds for necessities. You used the funds to support your own lifestyle and consumption of drugs.’

A proceeds of crime hearing will be held on July 21.

Flowers is a former Labour councillor and appeared before the Treasury Select Committee after being arrested in connection with a drug-supply investigation in 2013

Flowers has previously been filmed counting money for drugs

After the sentencing, Jayne Sharp, Senior Crown Prosecutor for CPS North West said: ‘Paul Flowers appeared to be a pillar of the community as a former Methodist minister, local councillor and bank director.

‘However, the trust and confidence Ms Jarvis had in Flowers when she named him as executor of her will and gave him power of attorney was sorely misplaced.

‘He carried out a systematic fraud over a period of six years, seemingly motivated by his darker side; in particular, his addiction to class A drugs.

‘Flowers stole a significant sum of money from his friend, with no thought for her, her family or the charities she had chosen to support after her death.

‘He will now face the consequences of his actions.’

Flowers is a former Methodist minister who chaired the Co-operative Bank. He hit the headlines in 2013 after the Mail on Sunday published secretly filmed footage of him handing over £300 in cash for crystal meth and other drugs in Leeds.

The Mail on Sunday story, headlined ‘Crystal meth shame of bank chief’, was the starting point for a rapid and public decline in Flowers’ fortunes.

After it, he pleaded guilty at Leeds magistrates court to possessing cocaine, crystal meth and ketamine and was fined £400.

Further tabloid stories followed about his use of drugs and male escorts.

He stood down as chair of the Co-op Bank, a post he had held for more than three years, after a £1.5bn hole was discovered in its finances, but before the Mail on Sunday story.

Flowers, a 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 and he used his work email account to send and receive sexually explicit and otherwise inappropriate messages, and to discuss illegal drugs.

In a 2016 interview Flowers admitted taking drugs and having sex with male prostitutes when chair of the Co-op Bank. But, he said, he tried to be ‘a decent