A judge pointed to shortcomings in the UK Serious Fraud Office’s case against four ex-Barclays bankers accused of lying to investors about the terms of huge capital injections at the height of the financial crisis, it emerged.

A jury at Southwark Crown Court heard on March 7 that Justice Jay ruled, before the trial began in January, that the SFO failed to take “any reasonable and appropriate steps” to contact Qatari investors or their lawyers about agreements linked to two multibillion-pound fundraisings in June and November 2008.