The horror movie metaphors were out once again yesterday as a French court heard Kerviel described as a “Zombie trader”.

Banking has had its vampire squids, wolves and now zombies have joined the pofession.

Jean-Hubert Blanchet, finance professor at Paris-II University described how Kerviel, SocGen’s €4.9bn (£4bn) rogue trader, never took holidays and worked long hours – an endemic problem in the industry.

“This makes the trader structurally more dangerous: the mad trader becomes the zombie trader,” Blanchet told the courtroom in the Palais de Justice.

He didn’t go on to describe Kerviel’s felsh-eating antics or unusual walking style.