DISGRACED former Co-operative Bank boss Paul Flowers took cocaine to cope with stress while looking after his terminally ill mother, a court was told after the church minister admitted drug possession.
Flowers, dubbed the Crystal Methodist, appeared before Leeds Magistrates' Court yesterday, where he pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of Class A drugs - cocaine and crystal meth - and one count of possession of the Class C drug ketamine.
The charges flowed from secret video footage of him which showed him handing over £300 in cash for the drugs in the West Yorkshire city in November last year.
District Judge David Kitson was told that Flowers had used cocaine for about 18 months but had little previous experience of the other two drugs. Mr Kitson fined the 63-year-old minister £400 and ordered him to pay £125 in costs.
Flowers said nothing as he left court. Earlier, he arrived before the building opened and had to endure five minutes of flash photography as he waited on the pavement.
His court appearance came as the Co-op was urged to back radical reforms that will sweep away the "dysfunctional" board which presided over the mutual's near-collapse.
Former City minister Lord Myners set out his plans for a "plc and beyond" structure by replacing the existing 20-strong board of representatives from the co-operative movement with professionally trained directors.
His proposals will be put to the vote at the Co-op's AGM in Manchester on May 17, but the peer fears that many traditionalists are "still stuck in denial" over the failings of the Co-op, which reported an annual loss of £2.5 billion last month.
Despite its membership of around eight million and 90,000 workforce, Lord Myners said that whether his report is accepted will depend on the votes of about 100 "elected democrats" who sit on regional boards.
Lord Myners said: "I have no doubt that the Co-operative Group can reverse a decline that started over 50 years ago. But I am less confident that it will choose to do so."
Ursula Lidbetter, chairman of the Co-operative Group, said a resolution containing the four key principles on reform will be put to members at the AGM.
She added that the board of the group has made clear its "commitment to far-reaching and fundamental reform of our governance".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article