When Paul Flowers shuffled behind a wheeled walker, sporting a full white beard and a scarlet scarf, he sometimes bore more than a passing resemblance to Richard Attenborough as Kriss Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street. But the life of the former chairman of Co-op Bank has been an object lesson that appearances can be deceiving.
Flowers – a former Methodist minister – was due to be sentenced on Monday after pleading guilty to defrauding a girlfriend and spending the money on wine, theater tickets and luxury vacations. Earlier this year, Flowers admitted 18 counts of abusing his position as power of attorney for Margaret Jarvis and after her death when he acted as executor of her will.
Manchester Crown Court heard the fraud totaled more than £180,000, but Flowers entered a plea admitting just under £100,000 in fraudulent activity. This was accepted by prosecutors and the crimes were described as a “gross breach of trust”. Before the sentencing, the suspect’s lawyer claimed that their client was in poor health. The case was postponed last year after Flowers suffered a stroke.
The conviction may represent a new low for Flowers, but the downward trajectory began at least a decade ago, and perhaps well before that. There could have been few more sudden falls from grace in British public life.
Born and raised in Portsmouth, Flowers worked as a teller at NatWest Bank for four years before training for the ministry. He studied theology at Bristol University in the 1970s. He subsequently claimed to have been raped by a fellow student during this time, resulting in repressed trauma and a lifelong difficulty in maintaining romantic relationships.
By all accounts he was a good and beloved Methodist minister for over forty years, and at one time presided over one of the fastest growing churches in Bradford. He was known for being friendly and welcoming to asylum seekers and earned the respect of many by overcoming severe homophobia as an openly gay man.
Drawn to politics from an early age, he was a Labor councilor in both Rochdale and Bradford. He was chosen by the Labor Party in 1985 as its candidate to become MP for Meriden, Warwickshire, but resigned when concerns were raised about his past.
At the time, Flowers blamed a “whisper campaign” about his sexuality, which he had never wanted to hide. He had also been convicted in 1981 of gross indecency, which he described as “the kind of crime to which gay people are susceptible in a pressurized and intolerant society”.
In 1990, Flowers was convicted of driving under the influence. The incident resulted in a church disciplinary hearing, but he was allowed to continue his ministry. In 2004, he resigned from Lifeline, a Manchester drugs charity of which he had chaired for 16 years, after being accused (but subsequently acquitted) of declaring false expenses.
His failure to become leader of Bradford Council’s Labor group in 2005 is said to have left him embittered. He then channeled his political ambitions into the cooperative movement, which he joined in his teens. He was appointed to the Co-op Group Board in 2008 and subsequently Chairman of the Co-op Bank in 2010.
The major lender had just merged with Britannia Building Society and was trying to take over hundreds of Lloyds Bank branches. It also had problems with its IT system. That same year, Flowers was appointed to the Labor Party’s Financial and Industrial Advisory Board by then leader Ed Miliband.
Things started to spiral out of control for the Co-op Bank when regulators tightened capital adequacy rules after the financial crisis. Flowers approved a recapitalization plan, but this was rejected by Euan Sutherland, the recently arrived CEO of the Co-op Group.
Flowers was eventually forced to resign after a black hole was discovered in the bank’s finances, leading to an emergency £1.5 billion bailout by two US hedge funds in June 2013. It subsequently emerged that Flowers also left the group board due to alleged irregularities with his expenditure. .
The then Conservative government seized on the scandal because of Flowers’ close ties to a number of Labor figures and the importance of the co-operative movement in shaping the Labor Party’s approach to business and the economy. During a disastrous performance by the Treasury Select Committee after the bank rescue, Flowers repeatedly struggled to understand key figures. At one point he told MPs that the bank had assets worth £3 billion; the actual number was closer to £47 billion.
The episode raised serious questions about how someone with so little financial experience could be appointed to such a senior role within a bank. The financial watchdog’s decision to approve his appointment was also seen as a prime example of the kind of light-hearted, hands-off regulation that had characterized the years leading up to the financial crisis.
Just days after the row by MPs, Flowers was filmed shelling out £300 in cash to pay for cocaine and crystal meth, leading to newspapers dubbing him the ‘Crystal Methodist’. The Financial Times described him as a “later Falstaff who reportedly prefers young men to girls and crystal meth to wine”.
The following year, in May 2014, Flowers was fined £525 after pleading guilty to possession of cocaine, crystal meth and ketamine at Leeds Magistrates Court. Flowers cited the stress of his role in the co-op and caring for his terminally ill mother as mitigation. Shortly afterwards he was caught on video again snorting cocaine and entertaining rent boys at this house in Salford, Greater Manchester. He was dismissed as a Methodist minister later that year and admitted to a BBC News night interview: “I have sinned.”
It was at this point that Bradford Council revealed that in 2011 “inappropriate but not illegal adult content was found on the council computer handed in for maintenance by Councilor Flowers”. When confronted with the contents of his hard drive, Flowers immediately resigned. .
In March 2016, the Sunday mirror Photos had been taken by yet another of Flowers’ male prostitutes, half-naked, sleeping and balancing chips on his nipples. Following that incident, Flowers arranged an interview with the Guardian to convey his side of the story. In it, he tried to balance his faith and the use of escorts by pointing out that Jesus befriended Mary Magdalene and other female prostitutes.
He also claimed that he often “guessed” the rent boys he hired. In the same interview, Flowers admitted that he had “very occasionally” taken drugs and had sex with male prostitutes at the Renaissance hotel in Manchester during his time as chairman of the Co-op Bank, which was headquartered in Manchester .
In March 2018, some five years after the bank was bailed out, Flowers was banned from the financial services industry by the Financial Conduct Authority for using his work email address to send sexually explicit messages and discuss illegal drugs and because he had used his work cell phone. to call premium chat lines.
Announcing the ban, Mark Steward, the financial watchdog’s head of enforcement and market supervision, said: “The role of chairman holds a unique place of trust and influence. The chair plays a crucial role in setting expectations regarding a company’s culture, values and behaviors. Mr. Flowers has failed in his duty to lead by example and meet the high standards of integrity and honesty that this role requires.”
As examples of official understatement go, it will take a beating.