A PILOT has been charged with attempting to fly illegal immigrants into the UK in a private aircraft (file image).
Richard Styles, 52, appeared at Northampton Magistrates' Court yesterday charged with facilitating a breach of immigration law.
Styles, of no fixed abode, was detained at Deenethorpe Airfield near Corby, in Northamptonshire after his twin-engine plane flew into the airfield from Belgium.
Police stopped a taxi which had left the airfield, arresting the driver and four Albanian nationals.
The taxi driver, a 42-year-old man from Tooting, South London, was questioned and bailed pending further enquiries.
The Albanian nationals, three men and a woman all aged between 21 and 64, remain detained under immigration powers.
During a short hearing, Styles indicated he will plead not guilty to the offence.
Hevwas remanded into custody to appear at Leicester Crown Court on April 25.