Trader 'twice caught' by colleague

An alleged rogue trader accused of losing £1.4bn was caught exceeding financial trading limits twice in the year before he was arrested, a court has heard.

Kweko Adoboli was "told off" after being reported by John Hughes, a colleague at UBS, in 2010, Mr Hughes told Mr Adoboli's trial at Southwark Crown Court in London yesterday. He told the jury he failed to report him for a second time when he discovered him breaking a daily limit in June 2011 because of the way the previous episode had affected their professional relationship. Three months later Mr Adoboli, 32, was arrested.

Mr Hughes told the court he felt Mr Adoboli resented his "grassing him up". Mr Adoboli, of Whitechapel, east London, denies two counts of fraud and two counts of false accounting.

Mr Hughes, 30, who was sacked by UBS in the wake of the loss, described his former colleague as "braver" than him and a "very, very good" trader. Asked why he had not reported Mr Adoboli's behaviour in 2011, he said: "I wish I had done. Then we would not be here."

The trial continues.