Scottish parliamentarian Trish Godman, mother one of the three NatWest bankers facing jail in the US said her son pleaded guilty to an Enron-related fraud with "deep reluctance". She said Glasgow-born Gary Mulgrew, 45, had been "coerced" into a plea bargain.  In a Texas court, Mr Mulgrew, David Bermingham, 45, and Giles Derby, 45, pleaded to one count of wire fraud.

Under an agreement, yet to be accepted by the judge, the trio would serve 37 months in jail and pay back £7.5m.  Mrs. Godman, MSP for West Renfrewshire and deputy presiding officer at Holyrood, said all three were the victims of an "unjust extradition treaty which breaches human rights". The Texan judicial system, she said, had "bled them financially dry". "After 17 months of being tagged and under curfew in Texas, my son is drained emotionally and financially and has taken this step of plea bargaining with deep reluctance," she said.

Until now the three had protested their innocence to all seven fraud charges. Prosecutors say that in 2000 the three men advised their former employer, NatWest, to sell part of a firm owned by Enron for less than it was worth.  It is claimed that the three then left the bank and bought a stake in the Enron-owned company, before selling it on at a significantly higher price and making a huge profit of £7million. They were arrested in the UK in 2004.

The "NatWest Three", who were extradited to the US in July 2006 whilst protesting their absolute innocence, now changed their plea after five years in a partial bid to reduce their time behind bars.  The British men, David Bermingham, Giles Darby and Gary Mulgrew, all 45, could have faced up to 35 years in jail as a result of the charges being brought by the US government. They agreed to change their plea following four weeks of bargaining with US prosecutors, in which they agreed to one count of fraud in return for the rest being dropped.

At a 50-minute court hearing at the US District Courthouse in Houston, Texas, the three, flanked by their respective solicitors, all pleaded guilty to one count of "wire fraud" before Judge Ewing Werlein Junior.  The judge explained that their guilty plea carried with it an admission of knowingly creating and taking part in a scheme to defraud and doing so with intent.