THE jury in the trial of a City trader from Hampshire accused of rigging Libor rates has been sent out to consider its verdicts.

Tom Hayes, 35, is accused of being the ''ringmaster'' in a massive fraud to manipulate the benchmark interest rates.

The rate is behind trillions of dollars worth of financial deals.

The judge, Mr Justice Cooke, told jurors at London's Southwark Crown Court to ignore press reports and base their decisions ''on the evidence alone''.

Hayes, of Fleet, has been on trial for two months.

He denies eight counts of conspiracy to defraud covering a period from 2006 to 2010, when he worked for Switzerland's UBS and America's Citigroup.