BUSINESSMAN Jonathan Fairley and his two work colleagues have been cleared of endangering lives by skiing off-piste at the height of the avalanche season.

Father-of-two Mr Fairley, 38, and two other men, had been jointly charged with deliberately ignoring signs, in the French Alpine resort of Val d'Isere, warning skiers a slope was closed due to an avalanche risk. The prosecution had claimed the skiers caused an avalanche.

Mr Fairley of Claremont Gardens, Marlow, was jointly charged with Guy McBride, 37, of London, and Paul Crowther, 36, of London.

All three were acquitted by a French court on Monday. Prosecutors had called for a £525 fine and a three-month suspended jail sentence.

Mr Fairley, a senior manager for a healthcare provider, said they had become lost and tried to get advice. But he said that they did not ski off-piste, as the prosecution claimed.

The men appeared before a court in Albertville, near Grenoble, last month, just weeks after an avalanche claimed 12 lives in Chamonix, in the French Alps.

Prosecutors said rescue workers risked their lives by going to help the three skiers on February 9 after they ran into difficulty on the closed slope.

Mr Fairley exclusively told the Marlow Free Press he first heard the court's decision on the radio.

He said: "I am relieved to hear the decision but the case should never have gone to court in the first place. There was no basis on which the charges could have been upheld.

"It was claimed we had caused an avalanche but it was simply not true. In police documents, no avalanche was even recorded as having happened on that day."

Mr Fairley added that the three of them were still waiting to see if the prosecution would appeal against the decision.

He said: "We have been left with a huge legal bill of a couple of thousands each to prove our innocence. It is unlikely that we will ever recover our costs."

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