Lorne Barlow Anderson, aged 44, admitted 17 charges of possessing indecent photographs of children on his computer.

He resigned as a director of Greenwich NatWest, the corporate arm of NatWest bank, over the matter.

Anderson, 44, who lives at a flat in in the City of London during the week and in Cobbets Hill, near Weybridge, Surrey, at weekends, was also ordered to pay £500 costs.

He also pleaded guilty to five counts of possessing indecent pictures of children downloaded from the Internet.

Magistrate Christopher Pratt called the offences "abhorrent" and fined Anderson £1,000 for each of the 22 counts at the hearing in Horseferry Magistrates' Court in central London.

Indecent photos

Anne Steer, prosecuting, said Customs and Excise officers intercepted a package addressed to Anderson in which they found two CD Roms containing indecent photographs of pre-pubescent girls.

The court heard that police raided Anderson's two homes and found a large number of indecent photos of young girls on 57 pages of downloaded and printed Internet material. Officers also discovered 3,000 pictures of girls.

Sentencing Anderson, Mr Pratt said he had found the material repulsive and he told him that if it was not for men like him the businesses that provided the material would have no work.

He also ordered the destruction of Anderson's hard drive apart from files that police had agreed to save.

After the case, Anderson said he was very relieved not to be spending Christmas in jail.