A Briton wanted by the Italian authorities to serve the remainder of a jail term for drug trafficking cannot be deported before the proceedings against him in Malta are concluded, the Constitutional Court has decided.

Richard Alistair Cranston, 43, from Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire had been found guilty of drug trafficking and was sentenced to three years and 19 days in jail in Sicily but he spent two years on the run.

He was eventually arrested in Malta following the issue of a European arrest warrant and contested the extradition request last month.

Magistrate Joseph Apap Bologna had, however, authorised his extradition and ordered that he be returned to Malta after serving time to face pending criminal proceedings on drug possession charges here

Mr Cranston filed a constitutional case claiming this was against his human rights because the procedures in Malta had to finish before he could be deported to another country.