A British judge found yesterday that Bernie Ecclestone had paid bribes to a German banker as part of a “corrupt agreement” linked to the 2005 sale of a stake in F1 – an issue at the heart of Ecclestone’s forthcoming bribery trial in Germany.

The British court ruling went in Ecclestone’s favour in that it dismissed a claim for damages brought against him by a German firm, but it contained damning conclusions about the 83-year-old who has dominated motor racing business for decades.

The judgment by the High Court added to Ecclestone’s legal woes ahead of his criminal trial, sche-duled to start in Munich in April, over the same events dating to 2005.

“I am afraid that I find it impossible to regard him (Ecclestone) as a reliable or truthful witness,” Judge Guy Newey wrote in his judgment.

The trial stemmed from a claim for more than $100 million in damages against Ecclestone and others connected to him, brought by German media company Constantin Medien.

Constantin had alleged that a controlling stake in Formula One held by German bank BayernLB had been undervalued when it was sold to private equity fund CVC as a result of a “corrupt bargain” between Ecclestone and former BayernLB banker Gerhard Gribkowsky.

Constantin, which had an interest in the BayernLB stake, alleged it had lost out as a result of the undervaluation, hence its claim for damages against Ecclestone and others.

Gribkowsky was jailed by a Munich court in 2012 for tax evasion and corruption for taking a $44 million payment from Ecclestone and his family trust after the F1 sale.

Judge Newey rejected Ecclestone’s explanation that the $44m payments were unrelated to the sale.

“The payments were a bribe,” the judge wrote. “They were made because Mr Ecclestone had entered into a corrupt agreement with Dr Gribkowsky in 2005 under which he was to be rewarded for facilitating the sale of BLB’s shares in the Formula One group to a buyer acceptable to Mr Ecclestone.”