Rebekah Vardy has lost her “Wagatha Christie” libel case against Coleen Rooney, in a dramatic legal defeat that leaves her facing significant legal costs, with her reputation in tatters.

In a damning high court judgment, Vardy was described as an “untrustworthy witness” who is likely to have destroyed potentially crucial evidence on purpose. The judge concluded Vardy probably worked with her agent, Caroline Watt, to leak stories from Rooney’s private Instagram account to the Sun, providing tips to tabloid journalists and aiding them with their inquiries.

The judge was highly critical of the loss of key communications. She said it was not believable that Watt accidentally dropped her mobile phone in the North Sea shortly after a legal request was made to search its WhatsApp messages.

Vardy now faces a substantial legal bill after deciding to pursue the case to trial. In return for spending millions of pounds, she will be left with the judge’s 75-page ruling, which describes her evidence as “inconsistent”, “evasive” or “implausible”.

Vardy’s reputation had already taken a battering during the seven-day trial at the high court in London in May.

In a statement after the verdict Rooney welcomed her victory but added that she “never believed it should have gone to court” and that “it was not a case I ever sought or wanted”.

She said: “It was not a case I ever sought or wanted. I never believed it should have gone to court at such expense in times of hardship for so many people when the money could have been far better spent helping others.

“Both before and after my social media posts in October 2019, I made every effort to avoid the need for such a drawn-out and public court case.

“All my attempts to do so were knocked back by Mrs Vardy.”

The saga began three years ago when Rooney, the wife of the former England footballer Wayne, conducted a “sting” operation to find out who was leaking stories from her private Instagram account to journalists at the Sun. Rooney identified the culprit with the now infamous words: “It Was……… Rebekah Vardy’s account.”

Vardy strongly denied passing information to the Sun and sued Rooney for libel in a bid to restore her reputation.

In a judgment released on Friday, Mrs Justice Steyn ruled that Vardy’s libel claim had failed.

The judge concluded that “significant parts” of Vardy’s evidence were not credible and that there were many occasions when her evidence “was manifestly inconsistent with the contemporaneous documentary evidence, evasive or implausible”.