Category Archives: How The Mighty Are Fallen

A former leader of the Union of Democratic Mineworkers has been jailed for four years for stealing almost £150,000 from a charity which cared for elderly miners.

Neil Greatrex, 61, showed no obvious emotion as Judge John Wait described the thefts from the Nottinghamshire Miners Home charity as breaches of the highest degree of trust.

Passing sentence at Birmingham Crown Court, Judge Wait told Greatrex – the UDM’s president between 1987 and 2009 – that he was guilty of “calculated and sophisticated” greed.

Greatrex, from Stanley, near Teversal, Nottinghamshire, was convicted of 14 counts of theft by a jury at Nottingham Crown Court earlier this month.

Jurors heard that the former £110,000-a-year head of the UDM had created false invoices before stealing £148,628 from charity funds to pay for improvement work on his own property and that of UDM general secretary Mick Stevens.

Judge Wait, who heard that Greatrex was earning a salary of £67,000 as long ago as 1987, told the disgraced union official: “As a trustee of the charity you were not entitled to profit from your role.

“You saw an opportunity to make personal profit at the expense of those less fortunate than yourself whose interest you had agreed as trustee to protect.

“Over the years you wanted works done at your own home and the home of your co-director – outside paving, a new kitchen, new windows and doors, many supplies of building materials.

“Works and materials that with the salary you were paid you could have afforded.

“This was calculated and dishonest greed.”

It also emerged during the sentencing hearing that Greatrex received a contribution towards the cost of his mortgage from the Mansfield-based UDM, which he helped to found in 1985.

Although Judge Wait accepted that Greatrex did not directly benefit from all of the monies stolen, he ruled that there was no mitigation for the offences.

The judge told Greatrex, who appeared in the dock wearing a grey suit and a black shirt: “Over the period of this indictment, you stole very nearly £150,000 from those you held office to protect.

“This was theft in breach of the highest degree of trust. It was carried out over an extended period by the person in whom the highest trust had been placed.”

Stevens, 60, was cleared of all 14 counts of theft at the earlier trial, which heard that the union officials were both trustees of the Nottinghamshire Miners Home charity.

Between 2000 and 2006, Greatrex billed the nursing home for £148,628 for improvement work which was actually being done on his and Stevens’ properties, including an £11,750 kitchen and other building and landscaping work, the court heard.

Stevens told the court he paid for improvements made on his own home by cash or through a separate company he and Greatrex ran.

He said he would not have authorised any payment through the charity for such work.

Greatrex told the court that he had billed the care home for a new kitchen for his own house, but that the money was taken in lieu of a salary.

But Stevens told the jury he himself did not expect a salary and that he was unaware Greatrex had taken one.

During the trial, the jury heard that one of the charity’s rules was that none of the trustees should take any benefit from it.

Greatrex spent more than 20 years in the National Union of Mineworkers before helping to form the UDM and became a controversial figure for speaking out against NUM president Arthur Scargill’s tactics in the 1984-85 miners’ strike.

A former mining union leader is facing a jail term today after being convicted of stealing nearly £150,000 from a charity that ran a care home for sick and elderly miners earlier this month.

Neil Greatrex, 61, the former president of the Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM), is to be sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court after he was convicted of stealing £148,628 from the Nottinghamshire Miners Charity which ran the Phoenix Care Home in Chapel St Leonards, Lincolnshire.

Greatrex claimed the money was spent on improvement work at the care home, but a jury at Nottingham Crown Court found him guilty of 14 counts of theft following a two-week trial which heard the work, including a £11,750 kitchen, was actually being done on his own properties and those of UDM general secretary Mick Stevens.

Stevens, 60, UDM general secretary, was cleared of all 14 counts of theft at the same hearing.

Following the verdict, Judge John Wait told Greatrex: “You have been convicted of a series of serious frauds against union members who had placed their trust in you.

“I see only one possible sentence – to spell it out that is a prison sentence.”

During the trial, the jury heard Greatrex, from Stanley, near Teversal, Nottinghamshire, and Stevens were trustees of the Nottinghamshire Miners Home Charity.

Between 2000 and 2006, Greatrex billed the nursing home for £148,628 for alleged improvement work which was actually being done on his and Mr Stevens’ properties, including a £11,750 kitchen and other building and landscaping work, the court heard.

Stevens told the court he paid for improvements made on his own home by cash or through a separate company he and Greatrex ran.

He said he would not have authorised any payment through the charity for such work.

Greatrex told the court that he had billed the care home for a new kitchen for his own house, but that the money was taken in lieu of a salary.

“I believed I was entitled to a reasonable salary and expenses from the home for the work that I was doing for it,” he said.

But Stevens told the court he himself did not expect a salary and that he was unaware Greatrex had taken one.

During the trial, the jury heard one of the charity rules was that none of the trustees should take any benefit from it.

Speaking after the verdict, Michelle Russell, head of investigations and enforcement at the Charity Commission, said: “Charity trustees have responsibilities to act in the best interests of the charity, and the theft of charitable funds is absolutely unacceptable.

“We welcome this conviction, which also disqualifies Mr Greatrex from acting as trustee.

“The Charity Commission has worked closely with South Yorkshire Police on this case and we also opened our own statutory inquiry into the charity in August 2007.

“In 2008, we appointed an interim manager to the charity, who remains responsible for its property and administration.

“Now that criminal proceedings are concluded, we will look at any outstanding regulatory issues relating to our inquiry and publish a report once it is completed.

“We welcome the police application for compensation on behalf of the charity.”

Greatrex spent more than 20 years in the National Union of Mineworkers before forming the UDM in 1985.

He became a controversial figure for speaking out against NUM president Arthur Scargill’s tactics in the 1985 strikes.

In an interview on the UDM website he said his own father did not talk to him for six years after the strike.