'Greedy' City trader Tom Hayes jailed for rigging Libor rates

A "greedy" City trader has become the first man to be jailed for rigging Libor rates in a scandal that shook financial markets.

Tom Hayes, 35, was today handed a 14-year prison term for his role as the "ringmaster" in an enormous fraud to manipulate the benchmark interest rates.

Sentencing him at London's Southwark Crown Court, Mr Justice Cooke said: "What this case has shown is the absence of that integrity which ought to characterise banking.

"You, as a regulated banker, succumbed to temptation in an unregulated activity because you could."

Hayes, a highly-paid ex trader at UBS and Citigroup, orchestrated a scheme to interfere with the rate to boost his own six-figure earnings.

In an audio clip he said "influencing" Libor was "commonplace" and admitted he was a "serial offender".

Hayes, of Fleet, Hampshire, was found guilty of eight counts of conspiracy to defraud covering a period from 2006 to 2010, when he worked for UBS and Citigroup.

It took jurors just over a week to reach their verdicts following a two-month trial.