Senior EADS executives were alerted five years ago about questionable payments made to the Saudi Arabian military by a British subsidiary that supplies communications and surveillance equipment and is now the subject of a criminal probe by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office.

Mike Paterson, financial controller of the subsidiary, GPT Special Project Management, alerted his superiors about the payments as early as 2007, according to emails seen by the FT. He initially contacted GPT’s managing director and the chief executive of Paradigm, GPT’s parent and part of EADS’s Astrium space division.

His fears centred on unexplained payments to the Cayman Island bank accounts of Simec International and Duranton International, which totalled ￡11.5m between 2007 and 2009. Mr Paterson also queried the gift of four cars valued at ￡201,000 to members of the Saudi royal family and military – as well as a ￡278,000 payment for the rental of a villa owned by a Saudi National Guard general. The payments were part of a government-to-government programme in which GPT’s payments were processed by the UK’s Ministry of Defence.