By Nick Griffiths

Last updated 11:39, Tuesday, 13 May 2008

A BRITISH man convicted of abandoning a fatally injured Carlisle teenager after a motorbike crash in Greece must wait a month for extradition charges to be dropped.

Paul Pettinger, 36, last month paid £7,440 to buy his way out of a three-year jail sentence imposed following the death of Jonathan Trueman 11 years ago.

The extradition moves were expected to be dropped at court yesterday. But the hearing was adjourned until June 9 at the City of Westminster Magistrates Court in London for the legal formalities relating to withdrawal to be completed.

Pettinger, of Banbury, Oxfordshire, took advantage of a Greek law allowing some criminals to convert jail sentences into a fine.

This followed an 11-year fight by Jonathan’s parents, Christine and Nigel, of Stanwix, for justice.

Mr Trueman, died 10 days after the crash in 1997. He had been a pillion passenger on a moped ridden by Pettinger, who had been drinking and left him at the roadside

Pettinger refused to return to Greece to face the authorities, but in 2001 a court there convicted him of negligent manslaughter in his absence and sentenced him to three years in prison, with an alternative of a fine of £3,668. Last month the court heard that Pettinger had paid the fine – doubled with interest to £7,440.

The crash happened after the Truemans had travelled to Zakinthos in September 1997.