Britons can pay to avoid jail

The Johnson brothers must pay 10 euros a day for the next 12 months

An English woman and her two sons can avoid jail terms in Greece thanks to a system which allows them to pay a fine instead.

Vera, Christian and Frederick Johnson were all found guilty by a Greek court on Wednesday of charges stemming from a row over a spilt kebab.

The brothers would have faced a year each in jail, while Mrs Johnson would have received a three month sentence.

Mrs Johnson has already paid their fine but the brothers plan to appeal against their conviction.

Charges against Mrs Johnson's fiancé Andrew Glover were dropped.

The family, who emigrated to Greece from Tunbridge Wells in Kent more than a year ago were arrested in the early hours of Sunday after an altercation with an Athens cafe owner.

Spilt salad

The brothers were alleged to have stamped on Dimitris Karamichalos' leg during the fracas in the Acropolis area of the city and were charged with assault.

Mr Karamichalos was said to have hit Christian Johnson on the head with an iron bar after seeing him spill salad from a kebab outside his cafe.

We shall immediately lodge an appeal and try and get some justice here Christian Johnson

Christian, 22, and Frederick, 18, were both convicted of assault on Wednesday and sentenced to a year in jail.

But under Greek law they can be allowed to pay a fine instead of going to prison and will have to pay 10 euros (about £7) a day for a year.

Their 45-year-old mother was convicted of resisting arrest and sentenced to three months, which she has already covered by paying a fine of 817 euros (about £570).

'Very relieved'

Mr Glover, 44, had also been charged with resisting arrest before the case against him was dropped.

The brothers lodged an appeal, which, under Greek law, saw them released immediately.

Christian Johnson told the BBC after the hearing: "I'm totally shocked, to be honest, I can't believe it.

"We shall immediately lodge an appeal and try and get some justice here.

"I accept some responsibility, obviously, because I pushed the man, but my brother was not even present.

The group were arrested in Athens in the early hours of Sunday

"I shouldn't be charged for assault, I should be charged for something along the lines of accidental harm, but the court obviously hasn't seen that."

The brothers' 44-year-old father Andy Staermose, who lives in St Leonards, East Sussex, said: "I am very relieved that no-one has been sent to jail.

"If the boys had been charged with GBH they would have gone to prison for eight years.

"A one-year jail term for damaging someone's leg in the way the boys were said to have done seems very light to me, which makes me think the authorities in Greece wanted this whole thing dropped very quickly.

"I still feel the man was injured by someone else.

"They are however free to go and will probably go back to Vera's house in Athens for a well-earned cup of tea.

"It has been a terrible ordeal."