Two trade union leaders yesterday appeared in court charged with stealing almost £150,000 from a charity for sick and elderly coal miners.
Neil Greatrex, former president of the Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM), and Mick Stevens, general secretary of the Nottinghamshire UDM, are accused of diverting funds from a convalescent home near Skegness, Lincolnshire.
The home was formerly owned and run by the National Union of Mineworkers but was taken over by the UDM after the breakaway union was formed during the long and bitter miners’ strike of 1984-1985.
Mr Greatrex and Mr Stevens, both aged 59, each pleaded not guilty to the theft of £148,600 from the Nottinghamshire Miners Home charity during an appearance before Nottingham magistrates this week.
The charges follow a lengthy investigation by South Yorkshire Police that was launched in 2005 after The Times revealed details of the close financial relationship between senior UDM officials and a number of law firms handling thousands of compensation claims by sick miners.
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The scandal led to an independent inquiry and a four-year criminal investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
The SFO abandoned its inquiry a year ago but South Yorkshire Police continued to investigate allegations surrounding the running of the Chapel St Leonards convalescent home by a charity of which bothMr Greatrex and Mr Stevens were trustees.
Both men, jointly charged with four offences of theft between 2000 and 2006, have been released on bail to appear at Nottingham Crown Court on May 16.