A RUSSIAN family have been told that a verdict will be delivered in three months on their final effort to avoid deportation.

For three years, the Brodski family, who are living in North Yorkshire, have been battling to win political asylum in Britain because the father, Stanislav, fears for his life after witnessing the massacre of students in Moscow.

Although the Home Office has already rejected their application, Mr Brodski, an inventor, is hoping to take advantage of a special dispensation for "innovators".

The family lived initially in York and now in Scarborough.

Their plight has been taken up by staff and students at Scarborough's Sixth Form College, where daughter Anne Brodski is studying, after college librarian Ruth Dale raised £2,000 for their legal fees.

"This is just the kind of family Britain needs," she said. "Anne is a brilliant student who has achieved success in her A-levels and now wants to become a doctor while her father is a civil engineer and an inventor."

Mr Brodksi is working as a security officer in Scarborough and his wife, Ludmila, is keen to pursue her previous career as a pharmacist. The couple's son, Yevgeny, 12, is at Raincliffe School, Scarborough.

MP Lawrie Quinn has taken up the family's case with the Home Office,

The Home Office said previously that while it accepted the family may have had trouble with individuals in Moscow it did not amount to oppression by the state.