So at least we know now why the Manchester based Co-op bank suddenly found that it had a £1.5 billion gap in its finances after it purchased the Britannia Building Society and aborted its plans to buy hundreds of Lloyds branches.

After today’s revelations in the Mail on Sunday, we find that its former chairman, the Rev Paul Flowers, a Methodist minister had been caught buying and using illegal drugs including crystal meth, crack cocaine and ketamine.

The paper revealed Flowers filmed buying the substances just days after he was grilled by the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee over the bank’s disastrous performance.

According to the paper, the £132,000-a-year chairman of the ‘ethical’ Co-op Bank from 2010 until May this year when he stepped down, 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.’

Flowers has been a Methodist minister for 40 years, currently in Bradford, and formerly chaired drugs charity Lifeline, whose motto is: ‘Telling the Truth About Drugs.’ In one report, Rev Flowers wrote of ‘the ever-increasing problems associated with drug use faced by individuals, families and communities’.

Flowers who also a chair of Manchester Camerata, the city’s chamber orchestra, has since apologised for his actions “At the lowest point in this terrible period, I did things that were stupid and wrong. I am sorry for this and I am seeking professional help, and apologise to all I have hurt or failed by my actions.”

The bank has so far refused to comment on the story but Flowers could yet face criminal charges as the police say that they are making “further enquiries” into the allegations.

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