British father faces possible extradition to Greek jail - over holiday car crash 13 years ago

Paul Wright has claimed the first he knew about being convicted in his absence in 2006 was when a 'police officer from Wrexham turned up at my door' in March 2016

Paul Wright arrives for a hearing that could see him extradited to Greece over a minor road accident that happened 13 years ago (Victoria Jones/PA)

A British man is fighting extradition to face a possible jail sentence in Greece – over a minor traffic accident that happened 13 years ago.

Paul Wright, 34, has claimed that he was not even the driver of a car that crashed in Crete in May 2003, and that the first he knew about having been convicted in his absence was in March 2016 “when a police officer from Wrexham turned up at my door with the [European arrest] warrant.”

An extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court in London was told that the crash happened when Mr Wright, from Mold, Flintshire, north Wales, was visiting Malia, Crete, on holiday as a 21-year-old.

Mr Wright, now a father-of-two whose wife is expecting their third child, claimed he was a passenger in a car driven by his friend who had offered to move it for a bar worker they had got to know during their break.

Mr Wright claimed his friend was driving when the car collided with a parked scooter a little further down the road.

He said the car owner had accused him and his friends of "stealing the car" but that Greek police then told the owner: "You gave them the keys, it's your responsibility. There's nothing more that I can do."

"As far as I was concerned,” Mr Wright told the court, “It was all over with."

Instead, the extradition hearing was told, the authorities in Crete summonsed him to attend trial on October 2 2006 in Greece. By then, however, he had moved from the Birmingham address he had given to the Greek police, so he failed to receive the notice.

In his absence, a court in Heraklion, the administrative capital of Crete, tried the case in 2006 and sentenced him to 15 months' imprisonment or a fine for criminal damage and for taking a motor vehicle without consent.

Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s extradition hearing Mr Wright told NewsNorthWales that a European arrest warrant was issued in 2009, but the first he knew of it was when “In March this year I got a knock on my door and it was a police officer from Wrexham asking me about what had happened on holiday.”

“I was in France earlier in the year,” Mr Wright added, “So I assumed he was talking about that, but he said ‘No, when you were in Greece’, and then it clicked with me.

“I thought he was going to take me to Wrexham station – but he told me that it wasn’t Wrexham, it would be Westminster Magistrates.”

He is opposing extradition on five grounds including his right to family life and that he did not know about the summons when it was made.

The court heard that he could pay a fine of 4,555 euro (£4,100) to avoid spending months in a Greek jail, but Mr Wright said he didn’t have the money because he was currently unable to work because of a problem with his spine.

Insisting that he was “completely powerless”, a visibly nervous Mr Wright told District Judge Mike Snow: “My fate is in your hands”.

He added: “"In a period of a year I've lost my health, I've lost my job, I've lost my career - everything - my savings, and now I've got my family life and liberty at risk.”

He insisted: “I have done nothing wrong.”

When Richard Evans, prosecuting, put it to him that "you deliberately absented yourself from proceedings", he replied: "No, I did not."

He went on: "I have not been a perfect man growing up but I have always admitted my mistakes, but this is one thing I did not know about.

"I made mistakes, I am ashamed of them, but I can't regret them because they made me the man I am today, and I like to think that is a man who works hard to provide for his family."

Questioned whether he knew he faced charges when he left Greece he asked why he would risk taking his family back there on holiday since then, saying: "What sane man would do that?"

He said he left the island for his own safety after a group including the car owner found him the next day at his hotel and robbed him.

He said: "I got back to the hotel and fell asleep. I was woken up by the car owner who then proceeded to rob me in my room.

"I had a couple that were stopping over the corridor from me and they looked after me and said for my own safety that I should get off that island.

"They took me to a small travel agents and paid for me to have a flight back for my own safety."

District Judge Mike Snow is expected to give his decision on the extradition on Tuesday afternoon.