Antiques dealer Brian Beck, 61, is accused of playing a key role in transporting cash from the sale of smuggled cigarettes. The father-of-eight, of Watering Pool Lane, Lostock Hall, denies conspiracy to launder.

The Manchester Crown Court trial heard how surveillance officers followed Beck to Antwerp, Belgium, where he was seen having a drink with two men at a hotel bar.

Ray Wigglesworth QC, prosecuting, said flight records showed Beck flew from Vienna to Amsterdam and from Manchester to Croatia in June and July 2001. Officers also monitored Mr Beck's European Fine Arts and Antiques shop at Cannon Street, Preston.

The prosecution claims that whenever Beck rang others alleged to be involved in the conspiracy, he used a public phone.

Another man, Damien O'Connor - a co-conspirator, the prosecution claim -was seen outside the Cannon Street shop on July 24, 2001, loading a box into a car. A red Vauxhall Cavalier was also seen to be loaded with a number of cardboard boxes.

Mr Wigglesworth told the jury how, in July 2002, Beck met with two co-conspirators at a car park in Bamber Bridge and threw a rucksack in the back of a van - a vehicle later stopped on the M6, when the rucksack was found to contain £102,890.

The prosecution alleges that Russian tobacco firm Zebra products smuggled untaxed cigarettes into the UK and Beck arranged for the transport of money abroad.
(Proceeding)