THREE British bankers have lost their legal battle to avoid extradition to the United States as part of the Houston-based trial over the collapse of Enron, the bankrupt energy giant.

The European Court of Human Rights yesterday refused to stop US authorities seeking to extradite the three former Greenwich NatWest executives under the Extradition Act of 2003.

The three men — David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew and Giles Darby — now face trial in Houston on Enron-related fraud charges. It is expected that they will be flown to the United States under armed guard by July 17. Typical court delays mean that the three men could spend more than a year awaiting trial in a maximum security prison.

The former executives at Greenwich NatWest, now owned by Royal Bank of Scotland, are accused of conspiring to defraud their employers of $7.3 million over a deal involving Enron. The men are accused of conspiring with Enron executives, including Andrew Fastow, Enron’s finance director, over the sale of a stake in an Enron entity to Greenwich NatWest for less than it was worth. That deal is alleged to have made them $7.3 million in profit. All three deny any wrongdoing. In the first high-profile challenge to the Extradition Act of 2003, the three men have taken their case to the High Court, the Court of Appeal, the House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights. The three argued that they should be tried in Britain because the victim was a British bank. The men also claimed that a US trial would violate their human rights.

However, they failed at every level of the legal process. Mr Bermingham told The Times: “This (British) Government has gone to every which end that it can to ensure that we are not allowed to have our case heard here.”

The controversial legislation allows the American authorities to extradite British citizens without any need to provide evidence proving their case. Originally intended to expedite US requests in terrorism cases, it has instead facilitated the extradition of businessmen. The bulk of requests have involved financial crimes.

Peter Binning, a partner at Corker Binning, the law firm, said terrorists may be better equipped to contest extradition because of concerns that their human rights would be breached over American use of the death penalty.

Implementation of the treaty has also been slanted in favour of the United States, where the Senate refused to ratify the treaty. This means that Britain needs a higher burden of proof to extradite Americans.

The case has caused concern in the City, with businessmen increasingly worried by the apparent determination of the US Government to pursue people abroad for white-collar crime. The US can extradite businessmen for alleged fraud, bribery, tax evasion or price-fixing. It has already claimed the scalp of Nigel Potter, the former chief executive of Wembley, the gambling company. Potter is serving a three-year sentence for bribing a US official.

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