A four-year jail sentence was handed down at Birmingham Crown Court to Neil Greatrex, 61, who as trustee of the Nottingham branch of the Union of Demicratic Mineworkers (UDM) was able to sign cheques and steal £143, 000 over five years from a miners’ care home, to spend on home improvements. He denied 14 charges of theft but was found guilty on all of them, Judge John Watt telling him “This was calculated and sophisticated greed”

Greatrex was formerly the president of the UDM.