Three British businessmen yesterday pleaded guilty in a Houston court as part of a plea bargain that will see them serve their prison sentences in the UK.

They have pleaded guilty to conspiring to operate a cartel in meetings that were held in both the UK and the US.

The agreement is the first of its kind. It is thought that the US Department of Justice, which brought the charges, had been prepared to let the men serve their sentence in the UK because department officials are keen that foreign legal systems seek to pursue and prosecute cartels. No court in the UK or in Europe has yet succeeded in securing a price-fixing conviction.

The three men – Bryan Allison, managing director of Dunlop Oil & Marine, David Brammar, its sales director, and Peter Whittle, an independent consultant – will be escorted as they fly back to the UK next week.

Under the deal, as a matter of process, they will also go for trial in a Crown Court in Britain next year and they have agreed to prison sentences significantly less than the ten years that they would have faced in the US.

It is expected that they will serve their sentences in an open jail, such as Ford Open Prison, in West Sussex.

Mr Allison has agreed to serve 24 months in jail, Mr Brammar 20 months and Mr Whittle 30 months.

Mr Whittle and Mr Allison have each agreed to pay a fine of $100,000 (£48,800), and Mr Brammar has agreed to pay a $75,000 fine.

The men have pleaded guilty to trying to fix the price of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of marine hoses that pipe oil.

A subsequent successful conviction in the UK would mark the first criminal conviction secured by the Office of Fair Trading.

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