They are not victims of a miscarriage of justice, freed after years of wrongful imprisonment. Nor are they protesters paying the price of breaking the law to establish a point of principle. The three former NatWest bankers who pleaded guilty this week to a charge of wire fraud are not candidates for martyrdom. So how did the fate of the so-called “NatWest three” became a cause célèbre for British politicians and business people?

The three – David Bermingham, Giles Darby and Gary Mulgrew – were extradited to the US last year under a fast-track process agreed between the UK and US in 2003. The British authorities could have pursued the trio about their alleged involvement in a fraud relating to the activities of the US energy group Enron, but chose to leave it to US prosecutors. After 17 months of being electronically tagged in Texas, the three agreed a plea bargain with prosecutors requiring them to serve 37 months and pay $7.3m in restitution. If found guilty on all counts, they could have faced up to 35 years in jail.