The European Court of Justice has ruled that a British-Irish citizen should be allowed to bring his Colombian wife to the UK from their home in Spain without her having to apply for a travel visa.

The move could potentially open the UK's border to large numbers of non-European Union nationals.

The EU's supreme court said the UK government can no longer require entry visas in advance for non-EU citizens who are family members of EU citizens and hold residence rights in other EU states.

The ruling was made in the case of Helena Patricia McCarthy Rodriguez, a Colombian woman married to Sean McCarthy, who has British and Irish citizenship.

They have two children who are both British citizens.

The court said EU rules did not allow the government to insist on her applying in advance for an entry visa when she travelled from their home in Spain to Britain.

Mrs McCarthy claimed she should be allowed to travel to the UK with her British family without having to obtain a British visa as she holds an EU Residence Card issued by the Spanish government.

However, the British government has until now required Mrs McCarthy to obtain a "family permit" visa every six months if she wants to travel to the UK.

The McCarthys took action against the government under the European Union's freedom of movement rules.

The ECJ in Luxembourg, which interprets EU law, ruled in the McCarthys' favour today, stating that freedom of movement rules do not allow measures which - in pursuit of an objective of general prevention of abuse - preclude family members from entering a member state without a visa.

Mrs McCarthy has to go from Marbella to the British Embassy in Madrid to be fingerprinted and complete detailed application forms every time she wants to travel to the UK.

The process takes several weeks, even months, her lawyers said.

The UK invoked the visa regime because it had concerns about other EU member states' residence cards, as some allegedly do not meet international security standards, and therefore could be used to abuse EU freedom of movement rules.

But the legislation requires an entry permit to be obtained before entry into the UK even where the authorities do not consider that the family member of an EU citizen may be involved in an abuse of rights or fraud.

Court of Justice judges said the fact that a member state is faced with a high number of cases of abuse of rights or fraud committed by non-EU nationals - as the UK claims - cannot justify a sweeping measure to exclude family members of EU citizens.

The judges said the UK is able to assess documentation for signs of fraud or abuse at the border and if fraud is proven they can exclude an individual.

But they added that the UK is "not permitted to determine the conditions for entry of persons who have a right of entry under EU law or to impose upon them extra conditions for entry or conditions other than those provided for by EU law".

A government spokesman said: "The UK is disappointed with the judgment in this case. It is right to tackle fraud and the abuse of free movement rights.

"As the case is still to return to the UK's High Court for a final judgment, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time."

Britain is bound by the Court of Justice's ruling.