France's highest court upheld a prison sentence for the one-time rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel but threw out the €4.9bn (£4.1bn) in civil damages he'd been ordered to pay back.

Kerviel, who is currently walking from Italy to Paris on a pilgrimage after meeting the pope last month, had appealed against the 2010 sentence of three years in prison, which had already been upheld once before by a lower appeals court.

In a statement on Wednesday, the court said the earlier decision had not taken into account faults committed by Kerviel's former employer, the French bank Société Générale, when it ordered Kerviel to repay the bank's entire losses in the fraud.

Television images of Kerviel in Italy showed him wearing a red jacket and red backpack, walking swiftly and trying to ignore the numerous journalists trailing him. He made no statement after the ruling.

The ex-trader was convicted of carrying out one of the biggest trading frauds in history. In an interview this week Kerviel said he would not try to abscond if his appeal was rejected.

"I am not leaving France, I am going back to France," he told the BBC. "I remain at the disposal of justice and the police so if they want me I am available."

He is living off €40 a day, he said, spending the night in small hotels and guesthouses along the way.

Kerviel sees himself as a victim of a system that turned a blind eye to his trades as long as they made money for Société Générale.