Plane spotter Christopher Wilson will fight to prove his innocence after a Greek court labelled him a spy.

Chris, from Horsham, and 11 other Britons were found guilty of spying at a Greek air force base last November.

Back home after being released pending an appeal he vowed: "We will keep going back until our names are cleared."

The 46-year-old shrugged off his ordeal to speak warmly of his love for Greece which, despite recent events, retains a special place in his heart.

The BT technical officer and his companions face a joint legal bill of £100,000 as they try to clear their names and several, including Mr Wilson, have been forced to remortgage their homes.

Mr Wilson rejected calls to boycott Greece, saying: "We have always enjoyed going to Greece and in general they are a warm and friendly people.

"It's up to people to make up their own minds but we are not advocating a boycott."

Mr Wilson was breaking his silence just days after a Greek court found him and five other Britons guilty of aiding and abetting spying, giving them a 12-month suspended prison sentence.

Six other British plane spotters were sentenced to three years in jail after being convicted of spying.

Speaking from his home in Erica Way, Horsham, Mr Wilson said: "I'm feeling very tired. On one day we were in court for 17 hours and I was called to the witness stand at 1am.

"I feel the court gave us the chance to explain our actions but what I can't say is whether anyone was listening.

"At the end of the trial we did ask ourselves why we had gone through this rigmarole.

"But there is absolutely no question that we will keep going back until we clear our names."

Wife Julie, 41, who travelled to Greece to be with her husband during the trial, said: "I was extremely relieved at the verdict in the sense that he hasn't got to go to prison but at the same time I'm very annoyed we are being put through this whole affair."

It was Mr Wilson's first aviation trip to Greece but he has observed aircraft across most of Europe, the USA and Canada.

His passion for plane spotting remains unaffected.

He said: "I have been an aviation enthusiast for more than 35 years and I could no more give it up than stop breathing.

"But I'm by nature a fairly cautious enthusiast. If I had thought there was any chance of something like this happening I wouldn't have gone to Greece.

"The tour company had done previous tours there with the full permission of the Greek air force. After September 11, they phoned the air force and asked if it was still all right to come.

"The only stipulation they made was no photographs at military bases, which we complied with at all times. When the police stopped us we were on a public road observing the aircraft, not in any restricted area."

The group was detained within hours of arriving in Kalamata in Southern Greece last November. They were interrogated and released before being arrested three days later and charged with espionage.

Mr Wilson and his companions were in jail for 37 days before being allowed to return to England for Christmas.

He said: "The prospect of going to a Greek jail was daunting and when we got there our apprehension wasn't lessened. We were split up but I was lucky and put in a cell with one of the other guys and two Albanians.

"There was a kind of camaraderie among the prisoners and even though they couldn't speak English, they showed us the ropes."

Mr Wilson and his fellow plane spotters are now awaiting a date for their appeal and another return to Greece. In the meantime, they continue the fight to clear their names and will meet Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in the next few weeks.