Barclays bankers blame 'burn out' for alleged criminal activity

Five former Barclays bankers, on trial for allegedly conspiring to rig interest rates, have told a court how pressure from the bank had caused them to “burn out”.

One of the accused, Alex Pabon, testified: “You definitely follow instructions from your boss” when asked about the bank’s work culture.

He also fought back tears as he told the jury that, by 2006, “I was kind of burnt out and ready to leave.”

Another accused, Jonathan Mathew, described how his boss used to call him a “deaf git” and “humiliate” him by “whacking” him on the back of the head with a 12-inch baseball bat – the Financial Times reports.