Prosecutors in Milan have demanded a prison term of four years and eight months for David Mills, the British lawyer and estranged husband of Tessa Jowell, the Olympics Minister, for allegedly accepting a bribe from Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, to give false or misleading evidence.

Mr Mills is accused of accepting $600,000 (£388,000) from Mr Berlusconi for testimony he gave in two trials in 1997 and 1998 in which Mr Berlusconi was charged with corruption. Fabio De Pasquale, the chief prosecutor, told the court that Mr Mills was "on the payroll" of the Berlusconi family holding company Fininvest as a tax lawyer and had developed a "professional and economic dependency" on it.

In a letter in 2004 Mr Mills told his accountant, Bob Drennan, that in the corruption trials, which involved alleged tax fraud by Mr Berlusconi as a media tycoon, "I turned some very tricky corners, to put it mildly, and so kept Mr B out of a great deal of trouble he would have been in had I said all I knew".

In evidence Mr Drennan confirmed the letter and added: "He appeared agitated, concerned and he said that he was worried that if it became public, the money from the Berlusconi group and the connected people, it would have an impact on his wife's ministerial career. He was also worried that the Italian authorities might interpret badly the money that he had been given, he was worried they might think it was in return for giving favourable evidence on behalf of an accused at a trial."

Mr Mills said that the letter referred only to a "hypothetical situation". Mr Mills — who has not appeared in court during the trial — claims the $600,000 was paid to him by Diego Attanasio, a shipbuilder from Salerno who was also a client. Mr De Pasquale dismissed this as a "false reconstruction".

Mr Mills, 64, was initially accused together with Mr Berlusconi, 72. However the Italian leader put a law through Parliament shortly after winning elections in April giving himself immunity from prosecution for as long as he holds high office. This left Mr Mills facing trial alone.

A verdict is expected next month. Mr Berlusconi claims that all allegations of corruption against him are brought by politically motivated "left wing" magistrates. Although in some cases he has been found guilty by courts of the first instance, he has never been definitively convicted either because he was acquitted on appeal or because time ran out under Italy's statute of limitations.

On Tuesday the Italian Court of Cassation upheld a lower court's rejection of a bid by Mr Berlusconi to have Nicoletta Gandus, the presiding judge, removed from the case on the grounds that she was biased against him.

Mr De Pasquale said that although Mr Berlusconi now had immunity from prosecution he was in effect on trial alongside Mr Mills since Mr Mills "did not corrupt himself". However La Stampa said that the prosecution case left the impression that it did not quite have the "smoking gun" evidence to convict Mr Mills.

The prosecution claims that the alleged bribe was used to pay off a joint mortgage held by Mr Mills and Ms Jowell on their London home. Ms Jowell was investigated by Parliament but cleared.

Times Recommends

• Fish and chip shops ‘selling cobbler as cod’
• T in the Park festival at Kinross
• Body Watch