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Former Co-operative Bank director Paul Flowers has been jailed after defrauding a 'vulnerable' friend out of nearly £100,000. The 74-year-old withdrew cash and paid for items and services from his friend's bank account 'as if they were his own' - both while she was alive and after she died. That included cash for drugs, holidays abroad, stays in hotels and payments to a wine subscription. Flowers, a former Labour councillor and church minister, dubbed the “Crystal Methodist” after a newspaper drugs sting, had been made power of attorney and executor of the will of Margaret Jarvis, a teetotal retired teacher, who never married and had no children. Due to his public profile, his standing in the community and their friendship, she trusted him with her affairs, Manchester Crown Court heard. But as Miss Jarvis’ dementia progressed and she could no longer look after her own money, Flowers began controlling her accounts and using her cash for his own selfish ends. He continued taking her cash after she died, aged 82, in 2016 in a care home in Buckinghamshire.