A former trustee of the Nottinghamshire Miner’s Home who was also a mining union leader has been found guilty of embezzling nearly £150,000 from the charity.
Neil Greatrex will face jail time after the jury found him unanimously guilty of 14 charges of theft from Pheonix Nursing and Residential Home Ltd, a subsidiary of Nottinghamshire Miner’s Home, which is the Union of Democratic Mineworkers' (UDM) charity.
The conviction is a remarkable fall from grace for a once-prominent member of the UK's mining community. After having been a member of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) for 20 years, Greatrex helped to found the UDM in 1985 as a breakaway from the NUM, and went on to become UDM president.
Some of the £148,629 Greatrex took was used to carry out tens of thousands of pounds worth of renovation on his home and grounds from 2000 to 2006, which he billed to the charity under the designation ‘improvement works’.
The sixty-one-year-old's reported defence was that he drew on charity funds to pay for his new kitchen in lieu of the salary that he insisted was his by rights. “I believed I was entitled to a reasonable salary and expenses from the Pheonix for the work that I was doing [for them],” Sky News reported him as saying.
The Nottingham Crown Court judge, meanwhile, is reported to have told Greatrex: “You have been convicted of a series of frauds against union members who had placed their trust in your. I see only one possible sentence: prison.”
He was released on conditional bail to be sentenced at the end of May.
Charity Commission response
Michelle Russell, Charity Commission head of investigations and enforcement, welcomed the conviction and confirmed that Greatrex has been stripped of his trusteeship.
She said: "Charity trustees have responsibilities to act in the best interests of the charity, and the theft of charitable funds is absolutely unacceptable.
"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."
UMD General Secretary Mick Stevens was initially charged with involvement but was released after the jury believed that he was unaware of Greatrex’s activities.
