A community leader awarded an MBE has admitted a £200,000 fraud.

Respected Peter Flukes, aged 70, pocketed a pension for years while still working for the Wolseley Trust.

His reputation is now in tatters and he faces a possible jail sentence at Plymouth Crown Court.

Flukes, the face of a string of projects across the city, received an MBE for community service from the Queen in 2010.

He has admitted cheating pension providers out of between £190,000 and £240,000 over six years.

Flukes changed his plea on the second day of a trial due to last over a week.

He admitted falsely telling pension companies that he had stopped paid work at the Wolseley Community Economic Development Trust between 2009 and 2015.

Peter Flukes at the Wolseley Trust in 2011
Peter Flukes at the Wolseley Trust in 2011

Flukes continues to deny a second count of fraud in that he paid his late wife Shirley a wage when she never in fact worked for the trust.

Prosecutors said that it was not in the public interest to continue the trial on that charge alone.

Recorder Paul Garlick allowed the count to lie on file.

Co-defendants Brian Winsor, aged 55, and 48-year-old Joanne Pickles have also denied both joint charges.

The Crown Prosecution Service has offered no evidence against them and the judge directed the jury to return not guilty verdicts.

Recorder Garlick released Flukes on bail to be sentenced with the aid of a probation report on August 23.

Brian Winsor at Plymouth Crown Court, where he faces fraud charges
Cleared of fraud: Brian Winsor

He said: “There is no question that this offence passes the custody threshold but a sentence may be suspended.”

Flukes’s own barrister David Hassall said during an application to throw out the case that his client’s “whole life would be damaged and smashed forever” were he to be convicted.

But the defendant changed his plea within an hour of the application being rejected.

Flukes, a proud Cornishman from Briarwood in Liskeard, was one of the founders of the Wolseley Trust in 1997 and retired as chief executive.

Peter Flukes oversaw the opening of a healthy living centre
Peter Flukes oversaw the opening of a healthy living centre

The social enterprise ran a business park at the former Scott Hospital in Beacon Park and channelled profits back into community schemes.

Flukes attended Buckingham Palace with his wife Shirley and two sons in 2010.

He later told our sister paper the Plymouth Herald that he took the opportunity to talk to the Queen about the trust’s work in helping some of the poorest people in the city.

Flukes was nominated for his MBE by the National Development Trusts Association.

Joanne Pickles at Plymouth Crown Court to answer fraud charges
Cleared of fraud: Joanne Pickles

Wolseley Trust manages business parks and community facilities worth more than £10 million with support from Plymouth City Council.

The trust website says the company has an annual turnover of £1.2 million with a trading surplus of up to £150,000.

More than 2,000 jobs have been supported across our business parks since it first commenced trading in January 1997, the trust says.

The site said it worked with a wide different agencies on health and wellbeing initiatives across four wards.

Chief Executive Sarah Taylor said outside court that it was too soon to comment on the case.