Exclusive: Mine union leaders accused of stealing £150,000 from charity

TWO leaders of the breakaway miners’ union, the UDM, have been charged with the theft of nearly £150,000 from a charity that ran a care home for sick and elderly miners.
By The Newsroom
Published 31st Mar 2011, 07:00 BST

It is understood Neil Greatrex and Mick Stevens are accused of diverting money from the Nottinghamshire Miners’ Home charity to pay for improvements to their own homes. The charity’s primary purpose was to run a convalescent home at Chapel St Leonards, near Skegness, Lincolnshire.

Both pleaded not guilty when they appeared at court earlier this week and have been bailed to return to Nottingham Crown Court in May.

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Greatrex, former president of the Union of Democratic Mineworkers, and Stevens, general secretary of the Notts UDM, are both trustees of the charity. The Charity Commission suspended both in 2007 after launching an inquiry.

The prosecution has come out of a much wider police inquiry initially overseen by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into the handling of miners’ compensation claims by the Mansfield-based union and associated companies.

The five-year investigation ended a year ago when the SFO announced it had insufficient evidence for a prosecution. But separate evidence gathered during the inquiry by South Yorkshire Police, who were working with the SFO, is now being put before a court.

A South Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said: “Two men have appeared at Nottingham Magistrates Court this week jointly charged with four offences of theft, totalling £148,628.83, from the Nottinghamshire Miners Home charity between June 5, 2000, and May 2006.

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“Neil Greatrex, aged 59, from Stanley, near Teversal, Nottinghamshire, and Michael Leslie Stevens, also 59, of Rufford Park, Newark, Nottinghamshire, both pleaded not guilty when they appeared in court on Monday.”

A Charity Commission spokesperson said: “The Charity Commission opened a statutory inquiry into the Nottinghamshire Miners Home on August 13, 2007, following concerns about its financial management and the proposed sale of property owned by the charity.

“The inquiry is ongoing. We have appointed Michael King, of Stone King Sewell LLP Solicitors, as interim manager of the charity. He is responsible for its property and administration and is carrying out the functions of the charity trustees to the exclusion of the charity trustees.

“The police are currently pursuing matters through the criminal courts and then we will consider our position pending the outcome of the court trial.”