THE three former NatWest bankers who last week struck a plea bargain with American prosecutors over their involvement in the Enron scandal are being given time to repay the $7.3m (£3.5m) they owe to their ex-employer, court papers show.

Known as the NatWest Three, they pleaded guilty in a Houston court to a single charge of wire fraud to avoid the threat of lengthy jail terms. They had faced seven charges.

The Sunday Times disclosed six weeks ago that the trio were negotiating a plea bargain.

Under the deal, prosecutors have agreed that the three – David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew and Giles Darby – are likely to spend just over three years in jail. They were also ordered to repay to NatWest, now part of Royal Bank of Scot-land (RBS), the $7.3m gained as a result of a fraudulent deal in 2001 involving Andrew Fastow, Enron’s chief financial officer.

But court papers show that they will have to hand over only a small part of the money to RBS initially. Darby and Bermingham each have to pay $500,000 when they go to jail after formal sentencing in February. Mulgrew, who is heavily in debt, will have to pay $250,000.

The three have also promised to consent to a civil judgment in the UK obliging them to pay RBS the outstanding $6.1m that they owe. Once sentenced, they are expected to open negotiations to try to secure a transfer to British prisons to serve at least part of their jail terms.

Bermingham, Mulgrew and Darby have been in the US for 17 months since they lost their high-profile campaign against an order forcing them to leave Britain to face trial in Houston.

They have been told to stay in the Texas city, where Enron was based, until the hearing in February, when a judge will be asked to confirm the plea-bargain deal struck with prosecutors.

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