YORK air enthusiast Andy Jenkins will begin the fight against his spying conviction in November, the Evening Press can reveal today.

The engineer, from Acomb, is likely to begin the appeal to have his three-year jail sentence quashed on November 4 in Kalamata, the Greek town where he was arrested during a "plane spotting" holiday last year.

Andy, 32, was convicted of espionage in April, following the arrest of himself and 11 other Britons last November.

If the appeal starts as scheduled, it will open a year to the day since the group flew to Greece to begin the fateful trip.

Roughly half the group, including Andy, was sentenced to three years in a Greek jail for spying. The other half received one year for aiding and abetting espionage. Each sentence was suspended, pending the upcoming appeal.

The hearing presents four options. The judges could back the original verdict, which would mean the sentences would begin immediately. They could lessen or lengthen the sentence, or they could find the group innocent.

Andy said he did not know the full details of the hearing, but understood it was to be conducted by judges from Nafplion, the headquarters of the Peloponnese judicial circuit.

"It's disappointing that it's Kalamata - again," said Andy.

"We'd hoped we might be able to get the case transferred to Athens because we're fed up of Kalamata. But it would have cost too much to fight to do that."

Paul Coppin, owner of Touchdown Tours, which organised the trip, confirmed that November 4 had been cited as the appeal date by the group's Athenian lawyer, Ioannis Zacharias.

He said the group members were "optimistic, but not confident" that the right outcome might be reached.

"We'd like to think they would find us all innocent," said Mr Coppin, from Suffolk.

"Obviously, they could put us all in prison straight away. But they've done their worst to us, and we're used to expecting the unexpected. We're stoic about it now.

"We hopefully won't come out worse off. We think it's unlikely they would want to compound matters for jailing us for longer than three years."

Mr Zacharias is currently on business away from Greece, but his spokesman said the lawyer was "intending to visit England to speak to the plane spotters soon".

Andy, an employee of wagon makers Thrall, which is set to close later this year, has already had to find nearly £8,000 in legal fees, and £9,000 in bail money.

"It is just going on and on," he said. "We reckon we're on far from a fair wicket."

Updated: 11:49 Monday, August 19, 2002