Date set for fraud trial for former Co-op Bank boss Paul Flowers

A fraud trial date in autumn 2025 has been fixed for former Co-op Bank boss Paul Flowers.

Flowers, 73, has yet to enter a plea to a charge that he committed a £68,000 fraud by abusing his position between June 2016 and October 2017.

It is alleged he committed the offence while acting as a power of attorney for a woman named Margaret Mary Jarvis and – following her death – when he acted as an executor.

Flowers – a former Methodist minister, Labour councillor in both Rochdale and Bradford and chairman of Co-op Bank between 2010 and 2013 – is expected to be arraigned at a further plea and trial preparation hearing on January 31.

A trial, estimated to last five days, will take place at Manchester Crown Court on September 1, 2025.

Judge Tom Gilbart told Flowers: “I recognise there will be frustration for you as well as for witnesses and other parties in this case, but that is the earliest date I can offer.”

Flowers was further granted bail, on condition of residence, to return to Manchester Crown Court next month for the plea hearing.