A SWANSEA businessman has lost his legal battle to avoid extradition to America on charges of obstructing justice.

Ian Norris, originally from Killay, was chief executive of engineering company Morgan Crucible — the parent company of Morganite in Morriston — until he retired on grounds of ill health in 2002.

The US government wanted to try Mr Norris in Pennsylvania for allegedly operating an illegal international cartel to rig carbon prices during the 1990s, an accusation he denied.

The 67-year-old won a legal ruling in 2008 to block his extradition, but American prosecutors pursued the case on related charges, and have now won a Supreme Court ruling that he can be sent to the States.

The court heard that both Mr Norris and his wife, Sheila, aged 65, were in poor health, and that the former company boss was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2000, although it was now in remission.

But the Supreme Court ruled that he could still be extradited, and that such a move was not incompatible with his right to private and family life under the European Convention on Human Rights.

Lord Phillips, president of the Supreme Court, said: "One has to consider the effect on the public interest in the prevention of crime if any defendant with family ties and dependencies, such as those that bind Mr Norris and his wife, was thereby rendered immune from extradition to be tried for serious wrongdoing.

"The answer is that the public interest would be seriously damaged.

"It is for this reason that only the gravest effects of interference with family life will be capable of rendering extradition disproportionate to the public interest that it serves.

"This is not such a case."

The case has been described by the US authorities as "one of the most flagrant and extensive obstruction of justice schemes ever investigated".

The former Swansea Technical College pupil currently lives in Maidenhead, Berkshire.

jason.evans@swwmedia.co.uk