The disgraced former boss of the Co-op Bank has handed back £185,000 he stole from an elderly spinster suffering from Alzheimer’s – avoiding an extra two-and-a- half years in prison.

Ex-Methodist minister Paul Flowers was jailed for three years in February last year for conning friend Margaret Jarvis and plundering her estate to pay for drugs, wine, luxury holidays and theatre trips.

At a second hearing in September, he was given three months to return the money to his victim’s estate, or face a longer sentence.

But while Flowers, 75 – nicknamed the ‘Crystal Methodist’ after The Mail on Sunday exposed his drug use while at the bank’s helm – has paid the cash back, it has not reached Miss Jarvis’ family – nor charities she left it to.

That is because he remains the sole executor of his victim’s will – and, incredibly, the family is struggling to track him down in jail to sign papers.

Flowers can be removed as executor only if he agrees – or if Miss Jarvis’ relatives secure a High Court ruling, which could cost tens of thousands.

A relative of the retired teacher, who died at 82 in 2016, said: ‘It feels like I’m banging my head against a brick wall.’ 

For ‘data protection reasons’ the family says authorities refused to reveal which prison he is in. 

Former disgraced Co-Op Chairman Paul Flowers at Manchester Crown court, Greater Manchester

Former Methodist minister Paul Flowers was sentenced to three years in prison last February for defrauding his friend, Margaret Jarvis (pictured)

Flowers systematically plundered Miss Jarvis’ estate to fund a lavish lifestyle of drugs, alcohol, luxury travel, and theater excursions 

Flowers also had power of attorney over Miss Jarvis’ affairs when she was alive. 

As her dementia progressed, Flowers wrote himself cheques, withdrawing cash and redirecting pension payments.

And he continued taking cash after her death in a Buckinghamshire care home.

Miss Jarvis left money to two nieces but the bulk of her estate was left to good causes including guide dogs for the blind and deaf.

Flowers, of Salford, Greater Manchester, eventually admitted 18 counts of fraud amounting to nearly £100,000 over two years. 

Jailing him for three years, Judge Nicholas Dean KC, Recorder of Manchester, said: ‘This is a story of betrayal, no less than that.’

In September, the Crown Prosecution Service won a confiscation order for £184,462 against Flowers, with all cash to be returned to victims.

The CPS confirmed the cash had ‘been paid in full’ to HM Courts And Tribunal Service.