A Bradford trucker sentenced to 11 years in a Greek jail could be home within a week after being granted a bail hearing.

David Wilson, 44, of Wyke, has been imprisoned since March after 19 refugees were found under a cargo of wool in his lorry as he waited to board a ferry to Italy.

His wife Tracey said she spoke to him today about the hearing.

"He's absolutely delighted with the news but he's also anxious," she said. "He's frightened that something could go wrong."

Mrs Wilson, 42, said that if granted bail and allowed to leave the country, he could be home early next week. "We are hoping that he will be able to get back here, but we won't know until Friday," she said.

Bail has been set at £22,000, and family and friends have so far raised £18,500.

Julie Butterfield, licencee at The Royal at Low Moor, base of the fundraising campaign, said: "If we don't have all the bail money by Friday we will club together and get the money sorted, but money is coming in every day so hopefully we'll have enough by Friday."

Mrs Wilson said she will be waiting by the phone to hear the outcome of Friday's court hearing. "I'm not going to the hearing," she said. "If it all went wrong I don't think I could take it again, leaving him in Greece."

Meanwhile, Bradford residents have been urged to write letters of support to help another Bradford trucker imprisoned in France.

Grandfather Terrence O'Con-nor, 49, of Great Horton, was sentenced in February after 50kg of cocaine was found in his load in Lille last May.

Families of both truckers attended a conference organised by Fair Trials Abroad in London to mark Victims' Day.

Stephen Jakobi, director of the charity, said lorry drivers were too often the innocent victims of sophisticated, cross-border criminal networks.

Mr Jakobi appealed for people to write to Fair Trials Abroad, Bench House, Ham Street, Richmond, Surrey, TW10 7HR.

The charity will forward the letters to the foreign embassies to make them aware of the level of public support for the drivers.