http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2510241/Paul-Flowers-escort-Ciaron-Dodd-reveals-drug-fuelled-sex-rooms-paid-Co-op.html
The rent boy and trysts in rooms paid for by the Co-op: Escort reveals Flowers sent him emails to organise drug-fuelled sex from his work account
- Ciaron Dodd said they met in plush hotel rooms paid for by struggling bank
- The £650-a-night escort revealed messages sent by Reverend Flowers
- Methodist minister used work account to arrange 'drug-fuelled threesomes'
- Mr Dodd says relationship ended when Flowers refused to pay £2,000
- Flowers allegedly met him through the escort website ‘Manchester Lads’
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Ciaron Dodd said Paul Flowers was debauched and 'showered him with gifts'
The humiliation of Paul Flowers worsened yesterday when a rent boy claimed the ousted Co-op chief hired him for sex.
Ciaron Dodd, 21, said they met in plush hotel rooms paid for by the struggling bank.
The Methodist minister, who was forced to quit his £130,000 role in June, showered him with gifts and took him for nights out to the theatre, said Mr Dodd.
The explosive allegations came as the Labour Party faced further damaging questions about its links with Flowers.
Pictures have emerged of a lavish reception hosted by Ed Miliband and Ed Balls at 10 Downing Street for Flowers and fellow Co-op grandees while Labour was in power.
It also emerged that Labour knew two years ago that Flowers had been forced to resign as one of the party’s city councillors after gay porn was found on his computer.
But it appears the Co-op was not told – allowing him to continue until June as its banking chairman, a position from which he helped to approve massive donations to Labour and Mr Balls.
Dodd, a £650-a-night escort, has backed up his claim by producing damning messages sent by Flowers, 63, from his work email - in which he organises drug-fuelled threesomes.
Dodd said: ‘I knew what he did for a living and couldn’t believe how debauched he was.
‘Every time he saw me he knew he was risking everything – but he just didn’t seem to care.
‘He took me to the theatre and gave me presents like chocolate and wine. I was old enough to be his grandson but he didn’t seem to think we looked like the odd couple.’
In emails from Flowers’ work account – paul.flowers@co-operative.coop – he wrote unguardedly about sex and drugs.
One email to the rent boy states: ‘Been waiting for you to come and have some coke (cocaine) and k (Ketamin) with me. P x.’
In another exchange, Mr Dodd asks if he can bring his friend Lucas. Flowers replies: ‘I like him a lot – but I can’t afford 2 of you this time! PXx’.
Mr Dodd claimed the relationship ended when Flowers refused to pay £2,000 he owed.
Another 31-year-old escort, who asked not to be named, said the bank boss often talked about his work.
He told the Sun newspaper: ‘He said there was going to be a public announcement about how a deal with Lloyds TSB had fallen through. A few days later I heard it on the news.’
Part-time model Mr Dodd said Flowers contacted him through the escort website ¿Manchester Lads¿ in 2011.
Risking everything: Paul Flowers was forced to quit his £130,000 role in June
Part-time model Mr Dodd said Flowers contacted him through the escort website ‘Manchester Lads’ in 2011.
For their first meeting, Flowers took him to see a play, You Can’t Take It With You, at Manchester’s Royal Exchange theatre before taking him to a hotel.
Flowers then paid £650 to hire Mr Dodd for the night and take a cocktail of drugs including amyl nitrate (poppers), cocaine, ketamine and party drug GHB, he claimed.
The pair were soon seeing each other once a week and Flowers would regularly take his new male companion to high-class restaurants and top up his bank account with extra cash, Mr Dodd said.
On top of his standard ‘fee’, he received almost £500 over a 28-day period and he was paid an extra £150 if he brought another rent boy along to the sex sessions.
Mr Dodd said: ‘I would meet Paul at the Renaissance Hotel in Manchester – which was paid for by the bank – while he was in town on business.
‘I would also go to his house where he would hold parties with other escorts and friends. It wasn’t long after our first meeting that Paul tested the water with me in terms of drugs.
‘He asked me if I dabbled and before long drugs were always involved when I met with him.
'Paul enjoyed my company too, though. He’d like to spend hours drinking, talking and taking drugs. He would raise his glass and say, “To good health darling” before we had a drink.’
Mr Dodd, from Manchester, said Flowers would often go to work after less than an hour of sleep.
It has also emerged Reverend Flowers was convicted of gross indecency in a public toilet with a man believed to be a trucker in 1981.
He admitted the offence at Fareham Magistrates’ Court in Hampshire, and was fined £75 with £35 legal costs.
Flowers told justices he was ‘shamed and embarrassed’ about the incident but maintained he was involved ‘at the other man’s instigation’.
Yet he was allowed to continue as a Methodist minister.
Even then, Flowers had friends in high places. He produced a character reference from a Labour peer, Lord Soper of Kingsway, who told the court his friend had suffered a traumatic experience.
Yesterday, Flowers stepped down from Terrence Higgins Trust’s board of trustees.
The Tories last night urged Mr Miliband and Mr Balls to ‘come clean’ about their links with Flowers, who has been suspended from the party.
Both men have been scrambling to distance themselves from the disgraced Methodist minister since the Mail on Sunday captured him on film buying hard drugs, including crack cocaine and crystal meth.
Hospitality: Paul Flowers (centre) at Downing Street for the launch of a Co-op venture in 2010
Labour support: Ed Miliband at the same function with Co-op chairman Len Wardle (left)
But damaging details have emerged about the extraordinary position Flowers had held at the heart of Labour. At the Downing Street dinner in February 2010, he can be seen drinking wine and mingling with guests, who included a string of Labour ministers.
Mr Miliband is pictured laughing and joking with Len Wardle, another senior Co-op figure who has quit as the group’s chairman because of ‘serious questions’ over his decision to appoint Flowers to the bank’s board.
Mr Balls, one of 32 Labour MPs who receive financial sponsorship from the Co-op, was also pictured networking at the event, which was held to launch the ‘Friends of the Co-operative ideal’.
A report of the event, in Co-operative News, reveals that Mr Miliband was ‘in demand’ from senior Co-op figures because he was in charge of Labour’s manifesto for the election that May.
A few months later, Flowers, who describes Mr Balls as a ‘political friend’ was appointed to the Co-op’s ‘political strategy working group’.
Along with Mr Wardle, he approved millions of pounds in donations to the Labour and Co-operative parties, including a £50,000 donation to Mr Balls.
Despite the economic crisis – and the Co-op’s dire finances – the group has increased its political donations from £664,000 in 2008 to £880,000 last year.
Flowers boasted to MPs earlier this month that he had helped oversee an increase in the maximum annual donations to £1.15million before stepping down.
Following the Number 10 dinner, Mr Miliband appointed Flowers to his exclusive business advisory board.
The Labour leader went on to hold dinners with Flowers and other business figures at Westminster restaurants in July and November of 2011.
This March, he invited Flowers for private talks at his Commons office. The following month the Co-op Bank threw Labour a financial lifeline with a £1.2million loan.
In a letter to the Labour leader, Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps demanded answers to nine critical questions, including what the Labour leadership knew about Flowers’ resignation from Bradford council and what personal dealings Mr Miliband had with him while the Co-op was doling out cash to Labour.
Mr Shapps wrote: ‘The latest revelations about the conduct and behaviour of Paul Flowers have shocked and appalled the public.
'They have also raised serious questions about the Labour Party to which you have not yet adequately responded.’
Tory MP Brooks Newmark, a member of the Commons Treasury committee, which is investigating the near-collapse of the Co-op during Flowers’ time as chairman, said there were also questions about whether Labour had been involved in his extraordinary rise.
Mr Newmark said: ‘Labour need to come clean about exactly what place Paul Flowers held in the Labour hierarchy.
'We know that the Reverend Flowers’ judgment was deeply flawed, no doubt not helped by whatever drugs he was taking.
‘But the question does arise whether, in spraying shareholders’ money around to the Labour Party, including an extraordinary gift of £50,000 to Ed Balls, was he engaged in some sort of payback for being given this £132,000 bank job for which he was manifestly ill-suited?
'We know there is a special relationship between Labour and the Co-op – did the Reverend Flowers receive support from Labour in getting the job?’
Flowers was a senior Labour councillor before rising to prominence in the Co-op movement.
The inappropriate material that cost him his council seat was found when he gave his laptop to the Bradford authority’s IT department for a routine servicing.
Shocked council officials confronted him with the images, and he resigned immediately. But in public, he pretended he was leaving for family reasons and because of his high-pressure role at the Co-op Bank.
Yesterday, a spokesman for Bradford Council said: ‘Inappropriate but not illegal adult content was found on a council computer handed in by Councillor Flowers for servicing. This was put to him and he resigned immediately.’
Bradford Council confirmed last night that it did not inform the Co-op of the reason for Mr Flowers’s resignation because, although he had breached the council’s rules, he had not broken the law.
At the time, the then leader of the council, Councillor Ian Greenwood, paid tribute to his work and called him ‘a highly gifted individual who has made an enormous contribution as a member of the executive’.
Mr Miliband and Mr Balls both deny having close links with Flowers.
Labour refused to comment in detail on the fresh allegations yesterday.
A spokesman said: ‘Ed Miliband and the Labour leadership have been as shocked as anyone at the recent revelations regarding Paul Flowers. That is why we have taken immediate action and suspended him from the Labour Party.’
Mr Balls was under further pressure last night to hand back a £50,000 donation from the Co-op. Mr Newmark said: ‘Mr Balls should ask himself whether it is right to accept that money and consider giving it back.’
A spokesman for Mr Balls insisted there was no reason to return the money as it had been properly donated by the Co-op Group.
Co-op Group boss quits in growing row over ex-banking chief caught buying drugs
The Co-op was plunged into fresh chaos yesterday as its chairman fell on his sword for appointing crack addict Reverend Paul Flowers to head the group’s bank.
Len Wardle’s resignation came as anger is growing among ordinary investors whose retirement incomes are being raided to prop up the disaster-prone bank.
He admitted ‘serious questions’ were raised by the drugs scandal over former banking chairman Paul Flowers.
Mr Flowers, a former Labour councillor and Methodist minister who was chairman of the Co-operative Bank when it ran into trouble, faces an investigation by the police after being covertly filmed counting off £20 notes to buy hard drugs.
He was covertly filmed buying crystal meth and crack cocaine.
Resigned: Co-operative Group chairman Len Wardle, left, has quit his job with immediate effect. Ursula Lidbetter, right, replaces Mr Wardle in running the troubled Co-op Group
The Co-operative Group yesterday launched a fact-finding investigation into 'any inappropriate behaviour' at the group or the Co-operative Bank and a 'root-and-branch review' of the structure of the organisation.
There is growing incredulity that a man with no banking experience and a penchant for crystal meth and cocaine had been made chairman of a bank.
But today Mr Wardle announced he will quit the £145,000 position he has held since 2007.
He was due to leave next May but he said it was now right for him to go straight away, having led the board that appointed Mr Flowers.
Mr Wardle said: ‘The recent revelations about the behaviour of Paul Flowers, the former chair of the Co-operative Bank, have raised a number of serious questions for both the bank and the group.
‘The recent revelations about the behaviour of Paul Flowers, the former chair of the Co-operative Bank, have raised a number of serious questions for both the bank and the group. I led the board that appointed Paul Flowers to lead the bank board, and under those circumstances I feel that it is right that I step down now, ahead of my planned retirement in May next year'
- Len Wardle
‘I led the board that appointed Paul Flowers to lead the bank board and under those circumstances I feel that it is right that I step down now, ahead of my planned retirement in May next year.
‘I have already made it clear that I believe the time is right for real change in our operations and our governance and the board recently started a detailed review of our democracy.
‘I hope that the group now takes the chance to put in place a new democratic structure so we can modernise in the interests of all our members.’
Critics have questioned how he could have been appointed given his apparent lack of experience, and Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, said that, even before the weekend’s revelations, it was clear he was ‘manifestly unsuitable’.
The Co-operative Bank is facing a rescue plan which will see majority control turned over to investors including US hedge funds, after it was left with a £1.5 billion gap in its finances following the takeover of the Britannia Building Society in 2009.
Mr Wardle’s departure will see him replaced by his deputy, Ursula Lidbetter, chief executive of the Lincolnshire Co-operative.
The Co-operative Group said: ‘It is intended that Ursula will chair the group through the current governance review, which will include consideration of how the board is constituted and chaired.’
ED BALLS UNDER PRESSURE OVER £50,000 DONATION FROM CO-OP
Ed Balls has come under pressure to return a £50,000 donation backed by the former Co-operative Bank chairman hit by claims of hard drug use.
Labour's leadership has attempted to distance itself from Paul Flowers, a former councillor, after it emerged he attended a private meeting with Ed Miliband and both men were also present at two dinners in Westminster.
Sources insisted he was 'neither influential nor important'.
Yesterday the 63-year-old was suspended from the party for bringing it into disrepute following footage that appears to show him buying drugs days after being grilled by the Treasury Select Committee over the bank's disastrous performance.
A Labour source: 'It's true that there was a private meeting with Ed in March of this year. There were two informal dinners - three meetings that we can find records of in the space of three years.
Earlier this month Mr Flowers told the Commons Treasury committee said: 'My recollection is that we paid for a particular researcher to assist the shadow chancellor in the work that he needed to do, and that we believed to be a legitimate and proper use of resources.'
Tory MP Brooks Newmark told the Daily Telegraph: 'The Rev Flowers' judgment was clearly impaired if he was prepared to give Ed Balls £50,000.
'Mr Balls should now ask himself whether it is right to accept that money, and consider giving it back.'
MPs have castigated financial watchdogs for rubber-stamping the appointment of Rev Paul Flowers, which they denounced as a farcical ‘box-ticking exercise’.
Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Commons Treasury Select Committee, said it was obvious when Flowers appeared before them earlier this month that he was ‘manifestly unsuitable’ to be a bank chairman.
He called for the regulation of senior bankers to be tightened to include continuing and ‘intrusive’ supervision.
‘It’s been a complete disaster. Nothing less than saying that will do,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s World At One.
He attacked the ‘approved persons regime’, whereby a City panel supposedly checked the competence of Rev Flowers, as ‘nothing more than a massive bureaucratic, back-covering, box-ticking exercise that satisfied regulators but did little or nothing to protect shareholders or customers of banks’.
In fact Flowers was only checked by the regulator when he became a member of the Co-op board and was not re-interviewed at all when he was promoted to chairman in April 2010.
Flowers quit his post in June this year as his ‘ethical’ bank was driven to the brink of collapse, threatening the retirement incomes of thousands of pensioners.
Yesterday he was also suspended by the Labour Party amid embarrassment over a £50,000 donation to Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls.
He faces a police inquiry into his use of hard drugs, and the Co-op announced a ‘root and branch review’ into ‘any inappropriate behaviour’ during the tenure of its former boss.
Mr Wardle will be replaced by his deputy, Ursula Lidbetter, chief executive of the Lincolnshire Co-operative.
She told BBC Radio 4's The World At One: 'The stories (about Mr Flowers) are shocking but it's not something that I can comment on today. There are investigations going on, it is in the hands of police.
'Len had already told the membership that he was going to stand down next May and in light of the review of governance, which Len started, he felt that making a fresh start with a new chairman would be the best way forward.
'We have to devise a governance for the Co-operative Group which is fit for the future, for the scale and complexity of the organisation. It's an amalgamation of many, many organisations over its 150-year history, and we realise that it needs to change, it needs to be simpler, and that will mean changing many things.
The one thing we do want to make sure is that members still have a voice at the heart of the Co-operative Group. There are seven million members and we think their voice should be heard loud and clear, but we are open-minded about how we achieve that.
'The review will look at absolutely everything - it will look at what went wrong, it will look at the opportunities and we will devise a governance structure that is fit for the future, involves our members and makes sure we are very efficient and highly effective in the future.'
Disgraced ex-Co-op chief's sordid past revealed: Methodist minister resigned as Labour councillor after porn was found on laptop and was convicted of gross indency in public toilet in 1981
- Reverend Paul Flowers was caught performing sex act with man in 1981
- Bank boss was 'shamed and embarrassed' but said 'I didn't instigate it'
- Methodist Church said: 'It didn't preclude him from activities in the church'
- Flowers 'used bank email to organise sex and drugs sessions with rent boys'
- Resigned as councillor in 2011 after 'inappropriate adult content' was found
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The sordid past of disgraced Co-op bank boss Reverend Paul Flowers was laid bare today after it emerged he has a conviction for gross indecency and quit as a councillor for having pornography on his computer.
The fallen Methodist minister is already being investigated by the police after apparently buying hard drugs, including crack cocaine and crystal meth.
But it has now been revealed that in the past 30 years he has been involved in a series of sex scandals.
In 1981 he was convicted of gross indecency after he was caught by police performing a sex act with a trucker in a public toilet - but he was forgiven by the church.
Rev Flowers, who is gay, admitted the offence at Fareham Magistrates' Court in Hampshire and was fined £75 with £35 legal costs, yet his church let him continue in his job because he was sorry.
He also resigned as a Labour councillor in Bradford in 2011 after 'inappropriate but not illegal adult content' was found on a computer he used, the city council said today.
A rent boy claimed today that the Methodist also used his Co-op email account to organise drug-fuelled sex sessions with and others while he was still chairman of the bank.
After his gross indecency conviction, Flowers told magistrates he was 'shamed and embarrassed' about the incident, but maintained he was involved 'at the other man's instigation'.
Yet he was allowed to continue as a Methodist minister.
'This was a matter for our usual procedures and after that process was complete it was decided he could continue as a minister,' a Methodist Ministry spokesman said.
'This matter did not preclude him from his activities in the church. He was very contrite, and he continued his work',
Caught on camera: The Rev Paul Flowers was filmed counting money for drugs in a scandal that has rocked the Co-op and the Methodist Church
Flowers served as a member of Bradford Council’s executive from May 2010 to August 2011, when he stepped down from the post, saying he had “increasing and competing demands” on his time.
The following month he resigned as a Labour councillor for the Great Horton ward, having served on the council since 2001.
At the time, he said in a statement: 'It has become clear to me that, over the longer term, I will be unable to sustain the workload associated with performing both roles to the best of my ability.'
But the council said today: 'Inappropriate but not illegal adult content was found on a Council computer handed in by Councillor Flowers for servicing.
'It was decided he could continue as a minister. It did not preclude him from his activities in the church. He was very contrite, and he continued his work.'
- Methodist Ministry spokesman on Rev Flowers' gross indecency conviction
'This was put to him and he resigned immediately.'
It comes days after the Mail on Sunday revealed Rev Flowers bought hard drugs just after he was grilled by MPs on the Treasury Select Committee over the bank's disastrous performance.
In the shocking video the 63-year-old was seen in his car discussing the cocaine and crystal meth he wants from a dealer in Leeds.
He then counts out £300 in £20 notes and sends a friend to make the deal.
The Co-operative Group said today its chairman Len Wardle had resigned with immediate effect, days after the former chairman became embroiled in the drugs scandal.
In the spotlight: Reverend Paul Flowers in December 1990 when he was vice-chairman of Rochdale Council¿s social services committee during the ¿satanic abuse¿ fiasco
Flowers was the £132,000-a-year chairman of the 'ethical' Co-op Bank from 2010 until May this year when he stepped down as the bank's financial woes became apparent. The bank lost £700 million in the first six months of this year.
Guest: A friend of disgraced Reverend Paul Flowers said he is house sitting for him, but the former Co-op chairman is in hiding
On the day after his appearance at the Commons, Flowers sent a text reading: 'I was "grilled" by the Treasury Select Committee yesterday and afterwards came to Manchester to get wasted with friends.
The video and a series of damning text messages leaked by acquaintance Stuart Davies, who was 'disgusted by his hypocrisy'.
The text messages prove Rev Flowers was using hard drugs in the days surrounding his crucial testimony to the Treasury Committee on November 6.
A parishioner who worships at Flowers' Bradford church last night told The Sun: 'The revelations are repulsive. People idolised him.'
Twenty or so years ago, Flowers came to public attention as vice-chairman of Rochdale Council’s social services committee during the ‘satanic abuse’ fiasco between 1988 and 1991.
It involved social workers making lurid claims about satanic rituals being performed on children and, as a result, 20 children from six families were placed in care.
However, the police found no evidence and a government-backed inquiry subsequently blamed ‘evangelical Christians’ for the scare.
Flowers maintained a high profile, sitting on committees and getting himself involved in community projects.
Ironically, given recent events, from 1992 to 2004 he was prominently involved with the Lifeline Project, which helps drug abusers. Today he remains a trustee of the Terrence Higgins Trust, the HIV/Aids charity.
Disgraced former Co-op chairman 'used bank email to organise sex and drugs sessions with rent boys'
Reverend Paul Flowers used his Co-op bank email account to organise nights with a £650-per-session rent boy, it emerged today.
The disgraced Methodist minister, 63, who was forced to quit his £130,000 role in June, organised drug-fuelled gay sex at hotels while he was still in the job, according to the escort involved.
Emails reveal he would pay for threesomes, taking the rent boys for expensive dinners before going to bed together.
Arrangement: Reverend Paul Flowers, pictured in front of MPs this month, used his company email to set up dates with rent boy Ciaron Dodd, who charged up to £650-a-night
The liaisons were organised while he was running the Co-Op bank, which at the time he was in charge lost £700million.
'I knew what he did for a living and couldn't believe how debauched he was,' escort Ciaron Dodd, 21, told The Sun.
'Every time he saw me he knew he was risking everything — but he just didn't seem to care. He took me to the theatre and gave me presents like chocolate and wine. I was old enough to be his grandson but he didn't seem to think we looked like the odd couple.'
The emails from Flowers' Co-op account reveal how he was happy to discuss sex and drugs, despite his public position.
One email to the rent boy says: 'Been waiting for you to come and have some coke (cocaine) and k (Ketamin) with me. P x.'
Email chain: Rev Flowers admitted he had threesomes in the past, but could only afford one rent boy on this occasion
Drug reference: This email, also sent to Ciaron says he wanted to take cocaine and ketamin with him
In another exchange, the rent boy asks if he can bring his friend Lucas.
Flowers replied: 'I like him a lot - but I can't afford 2 of you this time! PXx'.
According to his Facebook page Mr Dodds lives in Warrington, Cheshire and is a 'part time model' working in the catering industry.
But the page was taken down after friends began to post messages attacking him for going public about his meetings with Flowers.
He claimed the relationship ended when Flowers refused to pay £2,000 he owed.
By Alison Philli
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/how-drug-fuelled-reverend-ethical-banks-2810477How did drug-fuelled Reverend get ethical bank's top job?
Mirror columnist Alison Phillips says she's had more experience of the banking industry than Rev Paul Flowers - simply by queuing up
The biggest question in the extraordinary case of ketamine-popping, coke-snorting, Co-op bigwig Rev Paul Flowers has to be how on earth did he get a job as the boss of a major bank in the first place?
I think I’ve had more experience of the banking industry than him from simply queueing up for hours on end in my local branch.
His bosses at the once proudly ethical bank must have been smoking something even stronger than Rev Flowers’ drug of choice to imagine he was a suitable candidate for such huge responsibility.
For despite only a brief spell working in a bank after leaving school, he was somehow selected for the role at the top of the tree. I bet he could barely believe his luck, sat there smugly with pin stripe suit, silver rimmed specs and gold plated salary.
Yes, a man with probably just about enough qualifications to run a parish council was boss of a bank with £47billion of assets, £36billion in customer deposits and 4.7 million customers.
No wonder it is now on its knees.
So this case of the disgraced Methodist minister at the top of the bank yet again poses the question who on earth are the people running our financial institutions? And what checks are being made – and by whom – that they are fit and proper to do the job and look after our cash?
And that they’re not starting their day with the wrong kind of Special K.
It’s just over five years ago that a bunch of dodgy bankers brought our economy to its knees with probably the worst banking crisis we have ever known. Since that time millions of ordinary Brits have paid the price for our wounded economy through lost jobs and low wages.
As for the bankers? Oh, don’t worry about them – they’ve made sure they’re still doing okay.
In the fallout from the banking crisis we were told it would never happen again and that the Financial Services Authority would be keeping a close eye on those appointed to the top of banks.
There would be no more dodgy dealers, no more fly-by-night characters. Except now we see the FSA gave the green light to a bank boss who was actually flying around the night doing drug deals.
BBC
Yet his drug use and porn habit seem to be the least of the problems. The worst sin for his customers was his total incompetence. For if his toe-curling appearance at the Treasury Select Committee earlier this month was anything to go by, Paul Flowers was utterly unconvincing as a bank boss.
Asked what the size of the bank’s assets were he said: “£3billion.” Correct answer: “£47billion.” So just the £44billion out, then.
And yet this was a man who landed this job just three years ago with responsibility for the life savings – and jobs – of millions of hard working Brits.
At least Co-op chairman Les Wardle had the good grace to resign yesterday with immediate effect. Hopefully he’ll spend his early retirement considering how he managed to be such a woeful judge of character as to have appointed Mr Flowers to the bank board.
But the responsibility is not Mr Wardle’s alone. It is the bank regulators who yet again failed to pick up on someone dangerously in the wrong job.
Can we be certain there aren’t other bank bosses with equal incompetence and poor judgment? Going on what we have seen this week, I’d say not in the slightest.
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