Founder of 'Joe Bloggs' in court

The five men are due before the court again in December

Entrepreneur Shami Ahmed, founder of the Joe Bloggs jeans label, has been charged with conspiracy to impersonate a customs officer.

The Manchester-based businessman, and four other men, appeared at Southwark Crown Court, London, on Wednesday.

The offence was allegedly committed on or before 29 September, but the charge was not read out in full in court.

Mr Ahmed, who was listed under his full name Eaithisham Ahmed, was just 24 when he launched the Bloggs label.

Also in the dock with Mr Ahmed, 42, of Blackburne's Mews, Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, London, was David Montgomery, 42 and Simon Jones, 23, both of whom live in Hersham Road, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey; Mark Sheppard, 44, from Claremount Avenue, Walton-on-Thames and Christopher Hanson, 47, of Park Road, East Molesey, Surrey.

Conditional bail

No pleas were taken and the men are due to appear again at a hearing on 15 December.

Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith told the defendants they could all remain on conditional bail.

Pakistani-born Mr Ahmed, whose father founded a fashion empire from a market stall, made his first million within months of launching Joe Bloggs.

With slogans like "Everyone Snogs in Joe Bloggs" and "Kiss the Bliss with Joe Bloggs", he became the first person to take a British company into the UK's top ten jeans brands.