Giving evidence through the prosecution, Alexandra Healy KC said Alison-Madueke’s visits to Thomas Goode from February 2011 made an impression on staff due to the size of her entourage and the length of her shopping trips.

A store employee, Jon Taverner, recalled occasions when shopping lasted for hours, including one instance when she reportedly worked at a desk in the store before resuming her purchases.

“He described her as particularly loving their sales and unable to resist a bargain,” Healy told the court. On one occasion, jurors heard, Alison-Madueke allegedly remarked, “I don’t even know why I’m buying this, I haven’t got the room for it.”

Jurors were also told that Alison-Madueke never paid personally for items purchased at the Mayfair store. This included a £19,533 marble console table, a Georgian-style sideboard and a French writing desk. Some of these items were later identified by Mr Taverner after being recovered by the UK’s National Crime Agency from a storage unit said to be linked to the former minister.

While in office, Alison-Madueke had oversight of Nigeria’s state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and its subsidiaries, including the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company and the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company.

Prosecutors allege she accepted bribes from five men with senior roles in oil companies seeking preferential access to government contracts.

One of them, Kolawole Aluko, is alleged to have funded much of the excessive and extravagant spending, including the Harrods shopping sprees. Jurors also heard that Aluko paid for luxury bathroom fittings worth more than £38,000 from West One Bathrooms in 2013, although the items were never collected.

The court was shown extracts of recorded conversations from 2014 in which Alison-Madueke allegedly expressed concern that Aluko had been speaking about their supposed arrangement. In one recording, she is heard saying, “I will be happy to escort all of you to jail along with myself,” and later adding that she would openly explain events to the Nigerian public.

In the same conversations, Aluko is heard denying telling anyone about the alleged gifts. Alison-Madueke disputes, on the other hand, claims that $80 million had been spent on her, stating that the furniture she received amounted to no more than $4 million.

Co-defendants in the case include Olatimbo Ayinde, a Nigerian oil company owner, who denies two charges of bribery. Alison-Madueke’s brother, former archbishop Doye Agama, denies conspiracy to commit bribery.

The trial is also expected to hear allegations relating to £1 million in payments to Agama’s church, which prosecutors say were intended to influence Alison-Madueke.

The trial is ongoing.