He is the church minister and local councillor who rose to become chairman of a major British bank.

But the reputation of the Rev Paul Flowers today lies in tatters amid allegations that he took hard drugs.

Today the Daily Echo can reveal that the controversial clergyman has a hidden past in Hampshire. As reported by this newspaper, he was convicted of carrying out a sex act in a Hampshire public toilet more than 30 years ago.

The revelation has added further weight to questions being asked about how the 63-year-old ever managed to reach the upper echelons of the nation’s banking industry.

The former chairman of the Co-operative Bank has hit the headlines after being filmed allegedly buying substances including crystal meth and crack cocaine – just days after being grilled by the Treasury Select Committee over the bank’s disastrous performance.

But it is not the first scandal the former Hampshire politician has been caught up in over the decades.

The Daily Echo can reveal how the Rev Flowers pleaded guilty to committing an act of gross indecency at public toilets in Botley 32 years ago. At the time, the 31-year-old ran churches at Hedge End, Netley and Sholing and was a leading Hampshire Labour Party member.

He was convicted after police watched him and another man commit an indecent act at the Mortimer’s Road facilities in May 1981.

He was a member of the Labour Party’s County Executive and former vice-chairman of Eastleigh Constituency Party while his bold comments made him a well known figure earning him the tag of Hampshire’s “political parson”.

Fareham Magistrates’ Court heard how, at the time of the offence, the former Barton Peveril student had been under severe strain as it was two days before county council elections in which he was standing for Bishop’s Waltham division. His lawyer said he had not gone into the toilets with any indecent intentions, but had been tempted to commit the offence at the other man’s instigation.

The Methodist minister even received a character reference from Lord Sopley of Kingsway, the country’s foremost Methodist Church dignitary, who said the experience could “enrich his ministry”.

Magistrates fined him £75 and ordered him to pay £35 in costs after he pleaded guilty.

He later left the area and took up a key position on Rochdale Council in Greater Manchester at a time when social workers there had been strongly criticised for snatching 20 youngsters from their homes amid claims they were subjected to “Satanic ritual abuse”.

A Government report at the time attacked the authority’s social services committee – on which Rev Flowers was vice chairman – for its actions following the allegations. The Daily Echo confronted him at his then home in Rochdale in 1990 over whether he would resign to quit his post in light of his earlier conviction.

He told our reporter: “The past is the past. We are dealing with a case which needs sensitive handling and our pre-eminent concern must be for the children."

Parents of the alleged victims faced no criminal charges and police found no proof of Satanic abuse. But several parents complained they had not been allowed to see their children – aged between two and 16 at the time – for months.

The Rev Flowers launched a passionate defence of staff whose decision to take away the “at risk” youngsters came under fire. Yesterday, the former chairman of the Co-operative Banking Group and the Co-operative Bank for three years, was suspended by the Labour Party after the drug-taking allegations.

A Labour spokesman said: “In the light of recent reports, we have today suspended Paul Flowers as a member of the Labour Party for bringing the party into disrepute.”

Earlier the Rev Flowers had issued a statement which said: “This year has been incredibly difficult, with a death in the family and the pressures of my role with the Co-operative Bank.

“At the lowest point in this terrible period, I did things that were stupid and wrong. I am sorry for this and I am seeking professional help, and apologise to all I have hurt or failed by my actions.”

The Methodist Church has also suspended him.

A spokesman said: ''We expect high standards of our ministers and we have procedures in place for when ministers fail to meet those standards.

“Paul is suspended from duties for a period of three weeks, pending investigations, and will not be available to carry out any ministerial work. We will also work with the police if they feel a crime has been committed.”

The Co-op has been trying to plug a £1.5 billion gap in finances which was discovered following the purchase of the Britannia Building Society and abortive plans to buy hundreds of Lloyds branches.

It has been reported how the Rev Flowers, 63, is seen in his car in a video discussing the cocaine and crystal meth he wants from a dealer in Leeds.

He reportedly then counts out £300 in £20 notes and sends a friend to make the deal.

The video and a series of text messages were handed to a national Sunday newspaper by an acquaintance of the Rev Flowers who was “disgusted by his hypocrisy”, it said.

The text messages prove the Rev Flowers was using hard drugs in the days surrounding his testimony to the Treasury Committee on November 6, it added.

On the day after his appearance at the Commons, he sent a text reading: “I was ‘grilled’ by the Treasury Select Committee yesterday and afterwards came to Manchester to get wasted with friends.”

The newspaper said the Rev Flowers also boasts of using illicit substances including ketamine, cannabis and club drug GHB.

The Rev Flowers has been a Methodist minister for 40 years, currently in Bradford, and formerly chaired drugs charity Lifeline, it added.

The Co-operative Bank has declined to comment.