A millionaire businessman “repeatedly” stroked and squeezed a young woman on a packed London Underground carriage in a “deliberately sexual way,” a court has heard.

James Froomberg, 62, a former director for City of London police and National Lottery commissioner, is accused of pressing himself up against his alleged victim for “a couple of minutes” before getting off the train and attempting to avoid apprehension.

A fellow passenger is said to have told him: “I have seen what you're doing and it's disgusting.”

Froomberg claims he was asleep during the brief train journey and only awoke when the train pulled into Mile End station, where he got off.

His lawyer, James McCrindell, told the jury at Blackfriars Crown Court that he could not recall the alleged incident but conceded it was possible that having had too much to drink, he may have “tried to catch onto something.”

He claimed that if so, it was “only the one soft stroke” and a mistake.