Families of NatWest Three claim they were 'coerced' into guilty pleas

The British bankers, who had previously protested their innocence, told a court in Texas they wanted to change their plea after a deal with prosecutors.

Under the agreement, David Bermingham, 45, Gary Mulgrew, 45, and Giles Darby, 45, would serve 37 months behind bars and pay back £3.5million to the Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest's successor.

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The three were extradited to the U.S. under a controversial treaty 17 months ago.

But Trish Godman, the mother of Glasgow-born Mulgrew, said: "My son and his two colleagues are the victims of an unjust extradition treaty which breaches human rights and a Texan judicial system which has bled them financially dry and coerced them into a plea bargain."

Mrs Godman, the deputy presiding officer of the Scottish Parliament, added: "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."

In return for the guilty pleas to one count of fraud, U.S. prosecutors would ask for six other counts to be dismissed and support the trio's bid to "serve some of the sentence" in Britain.

Mr Bermingham's wife Emma, 40, said: "We just hope this is the beginning of the end.

"It's been really hard, it's coming up to the second Christmas being away from their families."

Mrs Bermingham, mother of the couple's three young children, added: "It's been a very long 18 months and all the children are coming around to their second birthdays without their fathers.

"It's just become more difficult as time goes by."

The three have admitted advising their former employer NatWest to sell part of a company owned by the collapsed U.S. giant Enron in 2000 for less than it was worth.

They then left NatWest, bought a stake in the company, Swap Sub, and sold it on for a huge profit, making around £3.5million.

Bermingham, of Goring, Oxfordshire, Mulgrew and Darby, of Lower Wraxall, Wiltshire, have been described as "ordinary family men" and are known to be keen to return home to Britain as soon as possible.

Outside court, their lawyer Reid Figel called the agreement, which has yet to be accepted by a judge, "an important first step to bringing this terrible ordeal to an end".

He said the three have 'fully accepted the responsibility for the significant lapse of judgment' that led to the case.

He also called on the U.S. and British governments to 'promptly' transfer them home to serve their sentence.

The three are due to be sentenced on February 22, but Dan Cogdell, representing Bermingham, urged the judge to consider bringing the sentencing date forward.

"Crudely put, they can't get out until they get in," he said.

Earlier, during the 35-minute hearing at the court in Houston, Texas, Judge Ewing Werlein Jr asked all three whether they were mentally or psychologically able to understand the proceedings and their guilty plea.

They confirmed they understood and were pleading guilty voluntarily.