The Home Secretary is to make a final decision on whether a Bradford trucker serves three years in a French jail without standing trial.

Jack Straw is considering extradition proceedings against Shaun Durkin, 43, after an appeal to the High Court was turned down last month.

Mr Durkin, pictured, of West Bowling, was convicted of drug smuggling charges in his absence by a court in Boulogne on the basis of evidence from one of his alleged co-conspirators.

An appeal against his extradition failed after judges ruled he could not get a retrial as he had not lodged an appeal against the sentence within the ten-day period following conviction allowed by French Law.

A Home Office spokesman confirmed that ministers were waiting for legal submissions regarding his case before a decision was made.

Today Mr Durkin, who continues to protest his innocence, said he was expecting a decision before April 15.

He said: "We've looked everywhere for help, but there's nobody around Leeds or Bradford who can."

His wife Jacqueline added that the family could do nothing but sit and wait for the outcome. She said: "We're determined to go all the way, even to the European courts. We won't give up.

"It's a waiting game now. We're still in the dark and don't really know what's going to happen."

At a High Court hearing on March 16, judges heard how Mr Durkin had been convicted after another trucker, who was arrested in Boulogne with 78kg of cannabis resin on October 21, told French police that he was acting under threats made by Mr Durkin.

Le Tribunal de Grande Instance de Boulogne Sur Mer requested Mr Durkin's extradition to face trial in November 1998.

But he appealed against a London magistrate's decision to commit him for extradition and did not attend the court hearing in Boulogne.

Dismissing his appeal at the High Court, Lord Justice Buxton said that Mr Durkin could have had a retrial had he chosen to ask for one.

Mr Durkin's legal representatives argued that the procedure followed by the French court had put him in an "invidious and unfair position".