THE father of a soldier killed by a hit-and-run driver says plans to create a memorial have been shelved because of mounting legal costs.

Stuart Walmsley said he has paid out “tens of thousands” of family savings challenging the appeal of Georgios Chalkias, who was given 26 month jail sentence, suspended for five years, for knocking down his son Brett as he crossed a road in Halkidiki in July 2007.

In 2009, Chalkias admitted to manslaughter by negligence, false statements to the police and failing to stop.

Mr Walmsley, of Greenway Street, Darwen, has been called as a character witness by police in appeal hearings in Greece. Chalkias wants the time frame of suspended sentence reducing.

Mr Walmsley said: “Everything is dragging on and costing a lot of money.

“Because the police have called me as a witness I have to have legal representation, and don’t qualify for their version of legal aid because I’m not a Greek taxpayer.

“I have a subpoena on me to attend court, or I will be arrested.

“I’m running out of money and I’m missing out on a lot of family things because I’m spending a lot of time flying out to Greece and on the computer doing research.

“I was physically and mentally wasted over Christmas.”

He added: “The idea of a memorial was well and good when we had money, but things have changed now. We’ll have to wait until the final case hearing.”

The final appeal hearing is set for a date in November.

Lance Bombardier Walmsley, 25, of 47th Regiment Royal Artillery, died of massive head injuries in the incident.

He had been on a three-day off-duty pass from a deployment with Nato forces in Kosovo at the time of his death.

Lance Bombardier Walmsley joined the British Army in 1999 and served initially with 12th Regiment Royal Artillery in Sennelager, Germany.

He was also involved in operations in Iraq and Northern Ireland, as well as on exercises to Oman, Germany, Kuwait and Canada.