Argentine prosecutors 'pushing for' Clarkson to face probe over number plate scandal

The reported move came after an Argentine judge ruled that Mr Clarkson and his co-stars DID deliberately enter the country with a Falklands-referenced number plate.

The stars and crew of the hit motoring show were forced to flee during filming in Argentina last year after outraged locals protested over a number plate that appeared to reference the 1982 Falklands War.

The BBC and Mr Clarkson claimed that the use of the H982 FKL plate was an "unfortunate coincidence".

But now Judge Maria Cristina Barrionuevo has rubbished their protests of innocence and dubbed their drive through Argentina with the vehicle, which was later abandoned, as "arrogant and disrespectful".

Insisting that Mr Clarkson and his team had acted with the aim of "provoking people" in a report earlier this week, she added: "The reaction of locals to such an offensive action was to be expected."

The judge, based in the southern city of Ushuais where the controversy kicked off in October, also ruled that the offending number plate had been changed after the vehicle entered Argentina's southernmost tip of Patagonia.

This is an offence that could lead to a conviction for falsification and carry a prison sentence of up to three years.

But Mrs Barrionuevo rejected calls to launch an official probe into the plate change, concluding that programme chiefs had acted to avert more conflict.

Her ruling came after local prosecutor Daniel Curtale asked the judge to open a criminal investigation for alleged falsification.

She said in her ruling, referring to the Falklands as the Malvinas: "It should be understood that it is not up to me to investigate or evaluate the decision - arrogant and disrepectful to say the least - by the Top Gear production team to enter the country with one or more Malvinas-referenced numberplates.

"Nor is it my job to gauge the reaction - anticipated - of citizens to such an offence.

"My responsibility is to analyse whether a crime has been committed under Argentinian law in relation to the removal from the Porsche of the original numberplate H982 FKL and its replacement by another."

Concluding Top Gear chiefs had not acted in "bad faith" in changing the plates, she added: "It led them to remove the original number plate and replace it with another which in principle wouldn’t have negative connotations with the aim of ending the main focus of conflict and avoiding violent reactions by locals which indeed ended up taking place.

"The change was not done in a surreptitious way, but with the knowledge and approval of the presenters who participated in meetings with the programme producers."

Local prosecutors are now understood to be preparing an appeal to the decision.

Judges in the nearby city of Rio Grande are now expected to be asked to order Mr Clarkson and the Top Gear crew back to Argentina for court action if Judge Barrionuevo's decision is overturned, it has been reported.

Mr Clarkson, 55, and co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May were forced to leave Argentina after protestors pelted their cars with stones.

They were in the country to film a Christmas special, which later aired on television despite protest from Argentine officials.

The incident was unrelated to the recent sacking of Mr Clarkson, who was dropped from Top Gear following a now-infamous "fracas" with a BBC producer.

The controversial presenter was originally suspended from the BBC following an attack on Oisin Tymon, during which he split his lip in a heated row.