Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, once a former contender for the papacy, was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison in what the media in Italy has called the Church’s “trial of the century”.

The charges followed an investigation by Vatican police into the misuse of funds in a property investment in London.

The Holy See had bought a minority stake in an office in Knightsbridge from a fund founded by Italian financier Raffaele Mincione, and intended to convert the building into a luxury apartment complex. The council, however, had not given planning permission for the conversion when the Vatican bought its share of the project.

It suffered losses of £100 million, having spent more than €350m when it obtained the property between 2014 and 2018.

Cardinal Becciu’s lawyers said he was “totally unaware of the potential problems” with the property investment or that it was “possibly illegal”.

“Nobody ever communicated the presence of problems and risks in the investment,” his defence team stated in a submission to the court in November.

Mr Mincione said the Vatican knew of the risks and lost money due to its own irrational decisions. He himself was found of guilty of embezzlement and money-laundering and was also jailed for five-and-a-half years.

In total, seven people were imprisoned and ordered to pay about €200m in damages to the Vatican.