British plane spotters fined £400 for monitoring Indian aircraft

Published: 12:12PM GMT 05 March 2010

British craft spotters, Steven Ayres and Stephen Hampton indicted of hacking in to pilots conversations, at justice in New Delhi, India Photo: REX

Stephen Hampton and Steven Ayres primarily faced up to 10 years in an Indian prison after being arrested over espionage claims.

They worried guess after asking road house staff for a room unaware a runway at Indira Gandhi International Airport and were carrying an air trade lift out scanner, laptop, binoculars and cameras.

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The men avoided espionage charges, that lift a prison tenure of up to 10 years, but were charged with a obtuse corruption underneath territory twenty of the Indian Act that carries a three-year prison judgment and or a fine.

Hampton and Ayres, both railway workers from Bristol, certified the assign and were fined 25,000 rupees (�362) when they appeared at justice today.

Rajeev Awasthi, the counterclaim lawyer, pronounced the restrictions on withdrawal the nation had been carried and they were free to lapse to the UK.

""They have been released,"" he said. ""A excellent was imposed on them and they are authorised to go. They have pleaded guilty. They certified they indispensable a licence.

""They can go behind to Britain, a couple of formalities are left. Their bail condition was overruled, they are free.""

Their detain on Feb fifteen came only dual days after a explosve explosion at a German Bakery in Pune, the initial vital set upon of the kind in India given the lethal Mumbai attacks in Nov 2008.

Labour MP for Wansdyke Dan Norris pronounced the men have to wait for until restrictions on their passports are strictly lifted, that could take a couple of days.

"I"m really gratified to listen to today"s preference of the court," he said. "I"m blissful that these men will shortly be entrance home but until they land on British dirt I shall not be counting any chickens."

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) mouthpiece said: "We can endorse that the dual British nationals who were arrested for craft spotting in Feb have been fined 25,000 rupees each by the Indian courts and are right away free to lapse to the UK.

"Consular staff have been in unchanging hit with both British nationals and go on to yield consular benefit to them.

"The subsequent of family and Dan Norris MP"s bureau have been done wakeful of the ultimate developments."