A GRANDFATHER from Orpington accused of conspiring to sell parts for Iranian missiles is one step closer to being extradited to the US.

A judge at the City of Westminster Magistrates Court this morning decided to forward the US government’s request to extradite 64-year-old Christopher Tappin to Home Secretary Theresa May.

Father-of-two Mr Tappin is accused of conspiring to export special batteries for surface-to-air missiles from New York to Iran.

He could be jailed for up to 35 years if the Secretary of State decides to send him to Texas and he is found guilty.

The millionaire grandfather, who lives in Farnborough Park, Orpington, and is the president of Kent County Golf Union, claims he was “set up” by US customs agents acting “outside the law”.

Explaining his decision to forward the request, District Judge John Zani said there were no human rights reasons to prevent the extradition.

Mr Tappin says he will now appeal to the High Court to overturn Judge Zani’s decision.

Speaking outside the court after the hearing, Mr Tappin said he still feels “very confident” of avoiding extradition.

He said: “The strong evidence I put forward showed the US agents acted outside the law.”

“I believe my case is strong enough to resist the Americans. I think they ought to take a look at themselves and how they conduct themselves, with interfering with the lives of other people in other countries.”

He added: “I look forward to winning the next round of this intriguing case and I look forward to justice prevailing, British justice.

“I’m fighting not just for myself but for other people in the same position. This is a matter of principle.”

Mr Tappin added: “My wife is under a lot of pressure. She is not well either so it’s very difficult when these things happen.

“There is a matter of principle here which takes precedence over anything else.”

Mr Tappin criticised the terms of the extradition treaty between the US and the UK, which allows the US government to extradite British citizens without showing our courts any evidence against them.

He said: “I think the law needs changing because it’s so one sided against the British.”

Ben Cooper, who is representing Mr Tappin, says he expect it to be a “matter of months” before the Home Secretary makes a ruling on the extradition request.

THE HISTORY OF THE CASE

In 2006, while a director for Brooklands International Freight Services Ltd, Mr Tappin was hired by a client to ship the batteries from the US to the Netherlands.

However, the company selling the batteries, Mercury Global Enterprises, was a fake organisation set up by US customs agents to ensnare people suspected of shipping weapons technology to Iran.

The US government, which has dubbed Mr Tappin a ‘fugitive’, claims he knew the 25,000 dollar batteries would be sent on from the Netherlands to Tehran, but Mr Tappin denies this.

He claims the undercover US agents told him it was legal to ship the batteries and even promised to arrange the paperwork, and he told News Shopper he is the victim of “entrapment”.

Both the client, British citizen Robert Gibson, and another man, US citizen Robert Caldwell, were convicted and jailed for two years in the US in 2007 for their part in the deal.

Mr Tappin was arrested in May this year and was initially held in Wandsworth Prison for 24 hours.

His case has sparked criticism of the extradition treaty between the US and the UK.