A British entrepreneur is to be extradited to France in connection with the murder of his millionaire Polish girlfriend, after his appeal was rejected by a UK High Court judge.

Ian Griffin went on the run in May 2009 after the body of his battered Polish girlfriend was discovered in the exclusive Parisian Hotel Bristol.

Kinga Legg (nee Wolf) was from the village of Opatowek in central Poland. She married an Englishman in 1996, but soon became a millionaire in her own right, transforming her father's modest tomato cooperative into an international concern, supplying Tesco, Carre Four and McDonald's.

Legg met Griffin in 2005 after her marriage had already collapsed. Griffin, also in his mid-thirties, was himself an entrepreneur, although then struggling against bankruptcy.

The couple, whose relationship has been described as “turbulent,” booked into a suite at the Hotel Bristol in Paris in late May 2009.

Legg's battered body was found by a maid, and the room – which had a do-not-disturb sign on the door - had been partly destroyed.

Mr Griffin fled France, and after unsuccessfully trying to retrieve his luxury boat - then under repair - was eventually found sleeping rough in woodland in his native Cheshire. (nh)