Calisto Tanzi, the former chief executive of Parmalat, which collapsed five years ago in a massive fraud dubbed “Europe’s Enron”, was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Milan court on Thursday.

After a trial lasting more than three years, Mr Tanzi, who is 70, was found guilty of falsifying accounts, market-rigging and misleading investors and regulators while at the helm of the Italian dairy group, which collapsed with debts of €14bn ($20bn, £13bn) in Europe’s biggest corporate bankruptcy.