BARCLAYS has been ordered to post €20m (£16.5m) as security with a Spanish court as part of a legal battle with a senior member of the Qatari royal family.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Thani is pursuing the bank over claims related to an alleged €50m fraud linked to transfers from his personal account with the bank’s Marbella branch.

The sheikh claims that gross negligence by Barclays allowed one of his employees to siphon off sums of about €4m a month undetected. Although a resolution of the dispute is still some way off, Barclays’ Spanish subsidiary has been ordered to deposit €20m as security against the claim.

The Malaga provincial court insisted that the demand was not a prejudgment of the case.

The €20m is likely to prove a further embarrassment for Barclays, headed by John Varley, which has been battling the sheikh’s claims while raising billions of pounds from Qatar’s state investment funds.

The bank’s recent £7 billion cash injection saw Barclays raise £3.5 billion fr, run by the sheikh’s cousin. Qatar also backed a £4 billion fundraising by the bank earlier this year.

The allegations relate to transactions that took place between December 2001 and February 2003.

The sheikh claims a former employee set up a bank account at Barclays’ Marbella branch, using his own name and the sheikh’s. The sheikh claims he had no knowledge of this and his signature was forged.

It is alleged money from another of his accounts was siphoned to the joint account, and later withdrawn or transferred to Monaco, the British Virgin Islands and Switzerland.

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