What fate awaits NatWest Three?

It was the rendezvous the "NatWest Three" spent nearly three years trying to avoid.

Shortly after dawn they arrived at a police station, emptied their pockets and surrendered to the custody of the US Department of Justice.

The British former bankers accused of making £1.4 million each from a fraud involving the collapsed American energy giant Enron will appear in a Houston courtroom today after a ten-hour flight across the Atlantic and a night in the cells of an austere detention centre.

They will learn this afternoon whether an American judge will grant them bail which their lawyers said is likely to require them to remain in the US for up to two years while their case goes to trial.

The hearing at the Houston Federal District Court will be the culmination of a long-dreaded and tumultuous 36 hours in the lives of the trio - David Bermingham, 43, Giles Darby and Gary Mulgrew, both 44.

Yesterday, in front of the massed ranks of the media, the three men travelled to a police station in Croydon, south London, from their large rural homes after bidding farewell to the ten young children they have between them.

Two of the men, Darby and Mulgrew, chose to avoid the waiting cameras by being driven through gates to the station's rear entrance shortly after 6am.

Mulgrew, a single parent who was accompanied by his girlfriend, was visibly upset and stared fixedly ahead as he entered the station.

But Bermingham, a former Army officer who arrived with his wife and was dressed in a blue check shirt and jeans, pulled up at the front entrance to once more criticise the Government for the fast-track extradition procedure that had been used to despatch them to Texas.

Addressing reporters, he said: "It's a very sad day because most of you are British and you got let down today by your own government."

His wife, Emma, 39, said the couple had spent Thursday evening watching the news with their three sons, the youngest of whom was too young to understand why his father was going away.

She said: "I think these guys have been totally let down. We have been hoping all the way along that somebody would take this to court in England and this would be unnecessary, for them to be taken to the other side of the Atlantic."

Once inside the police station, the men who once cut multi-million corporate deals for the investment banking arm of NatWest were searched and made to empty their pockets before having their possessions formally logged.

They were then formally handed over to the custody of US federal marshals and driven in a van to Gatwick Airport in time to board Continental Airlines flight CO35 to Houston.

Their lawyer, Mark Spragg, said: "They were resigned to their fate. They think it's terribly unfair. They are preparing for a very difficult road ahead."

Gone were the business class seats that the men would have occupied on their way to Houston in 2000 to allegedly negotiate the deal with senior Enron executives which eventually netted the three Britons 7.3 million US dollars.

Yesterday, the former bankers travelled at the back of the plane in economy class, flanked by their US government escorts.

On arrival in Houston, they were expected to be transported to the Houston Federal Detention Centre, a grim 11-floor skyscraper which has views over the building that once housed the corporate headquarters of Enron, which collapsed in 2001 under the burden of billions of dollars of fraudulently concealed debt.

Their bail hearing is scheduled for 2pm local time in Houston.

Bermingham said yesterday that he was "very optimistic" that he and his two former colleagues at Greenwich NatWest would be granted conditional bail.

The Prime Minister Tony Blair said today that he had received assurances that American prosecutors would not oppose conditional bail.

Representatives of the men said they had been told by American lawyers that it would be very unlikely they would be allowed to return to Britain on bail.

The NatWest Three's lawyer said the bail conditions likely to be imposed by the American court, including a one million dollar bail bond and the deeds of their homes as security, would be financially ruinous and make it difficult for them to receive a fair trial.

They would be unable to work in America to support their families while they incur additional legal bills of two million US dollars, including the air fares to bring defence witnesses from Britain.

It is understood that one of those defence witnesses would have been Neil Coulbeck, 53, the former NatWest colleague whose body was found on Tuesday after he apparently took his life in a London park.

Mr Spragg said: "I do not think they will get a fair trial in Houston. I hope all the media pressure will convince the Government that there is definitely something wrong with this extradition treaty."

He added that he believed the men would come under pressure to accept a plea bargain: "There will be pressure for them to split up and each one of them will be offered a separate deal if they give evidence against the others."

The trio are accused of conspiring with Enron executives, including the head of finance, Andrew Fastow, who is currently serving a 10-year jail term, to complete a 20 million-dollar fraud by selling the NatWest's stake in a debt vehicle for one million dollars.

Prosecutors say this was far less than the debt vehicle's true worth and the fraud was completed when the three men bought it back at a profit of 7.3 million dollars.

The Britons all deny any wrongdoing.

The completion of the extradition last night brought further disquiet from the higher echelons of British business.

The CBI warned that the 2003 Extradition Act was putting at risk Britain's position as a leading business centre.

Richard Lambert, the CBI's director general, said: "Whatever the guilt or innocence of the NatWest Three, the current extradition arrangements are an affront to natural justice.

"If the Government does nothing to correct the current imbalance it risks damaging the UK's position as a leading financial capital market."

- INDEPENDENT