An England fan from Faversham who was convicted of rioting at Euro 2004 faces being sent back to Portugal to serve a two-year jail term, despite one of the country's most senior judges describing his case as a "serious injustice".

Giving a ruling at the High Court today, Lord Justice Moses said that Gary Mann's lawyers, in Portugal and in the UK, had twice failed to appeal various aspects of the case when they should have done.

But the judge ruled that the High Court had no jurisdiction to interfere with an earlier decision, made at The City of Westminster Magistrates Court, to extradite Mr Mann to the continent.

Lawyers for Garry Mann, of Gordon Square, Faversham, argued that his trial just 24 hours after the Algarve riot was a "flagrant denial of justice".

A British police officer present at the court in Albufeira has since described proceedings there as a farce.

After a day-long trial, during which he shared an interpreter with 12 other men, Mr Mann, a firefighter for 31 years until he lost his job because of the conviction, was found guilty of participation in a riot and jailed for two years.

He says he was told that if he agreed to deportation, which he did, he would not be sent to prison.

But now the Portuguese authorities want him to serve his jail term there, issuing a European Arrest Warrant against him in February this year.

And in August this year Senior District Judge Timothy Workman, sitting at The City of Westminster Magistrates Court, ordered that he be extradited.

At the High Court, leading human rights lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald QC, argued that Mr Mann should be spared extradition as his right to a fair trial had been violated.

Mr Fitzgerald, for Mr Mann, argued that Judge Workman was not aware that Mr Mann saw his lawyer for just five minutes before the trial and did not have proper access to an interpreter.

The barrister added that another UK judge had refused to impose a football banning order on Mr Mann because of the way the Portuguese trial was conducted.

He added that the trial, which lasted from 11 in the morning until 11.30 at night, was a "flagrant denial of justice" as there was a limit on witnesses, Mr Mann did not know the charges he was facing and and he was identified in the dock by Portuguese police officers.

However, Lord Justice Moses, sitting with Mr Justice Hickinbottom, ruled the High Court's hands were tied by the law and they could not intervene in the case as Mr Mann's then lawyers had lodged a challenge against Judge Workman's decision one day too late.

Their mistake followed an earlier error by Mr Mann's Portuguese legal team, which also failed to file appeal documents within strict time limits.

The judge said that he could not pass comment on whether or not Mr Mann received a fair trial, as the Portuguese authorities insist that they did nothing wrong.

But he said the injustice to Mr Mann stemmed from the twin failures of former lawyers.

"He had not been in trouble for 29 years, when he received a small fine for a minor offence," said the judge. "Now, after a hearing condemned by a police officer as a farce, he faces two years in prison, over five years since his original conviction.

Lord Justice Moses added that he hoped that the European Court of Human Rights or the diplomatic authorities in either the UK or Portugal "can strive to achieve some measure of justice for Mr Mann, a justice which he has been so signally deprived by those on whom he had previously relied".

At the High Court in November, Mr Mann said that he was innocently drinking in a bar with seven friends, all of whom are prepared to give evidence on his behalf, when the riot was taking place.

Mr Mann's lawyers told Lord Justice Moses that they remain hopeful of success in another judicial review challenge against the extradition. If necessary, they will take his case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Mr Mann declined to comment until he had read the judgement in full, but is expected to talk to the media later this morning.