EIGHT men — four of them from Bolton — were accused at Manchester and Salford magistrates’ court of conspiring to evade duty totalling £706,000 in relation to over three million branded cigarettes.
Cigarettes were seized in a shipping container from Greece which had been transferred to an industrial unit in Bolton.
Isaac Duxbury, aged 26, of Aldercroft Avenue, Breightmet; Munaf Patel, aged 42, of Blackburn Road; James Ward, aged 56, of Norwood Grove; and Christopher Clarke, aged 46, of Coal Pit Lane, Smithills, all appeared in court.
Karl Coxon, aged 54, of Gallowsclough Road, Stalybridge; Paul Keane, aged 50, of Dorchester Road, Swinton; and Scott Taylor, aged 48, from Lincs; and Hasan Koc, aged 50, from London, also appeared.
None of the men offered a plea to the charge of conspiring in April last year.
They were all sent to Manchester Crown Court for a plea and case management hearing on September 7. All were granted unconditional bail.
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