Ten men accused of grabbing more than £1 million from a Gatwick Airport bank will stand a three-month trial after Easter next year.

Brothers Tony, 44 and Martin Bowers, 41, both gym owners, allegedly teamed up with jobless sibling Paul Bowers, 36, to make off with £1,123,639 from the BA world cargo terminal.

They were helped by other gang members who disguised themselves as security guards in the daring heist, it is claimed.

The gang allegedly drove a van into the Sussex airport and loaded up the cash from the HSBC bank in the early hours of March 27 this year.

The team are also said to have plotted a spate of crimes throughout England and Scotland.

They are accused of targeting lorry loads of Absolut Vodka, Limpet adhesive tape, Hinari food blenders and Goodmans' stereos.

It is claimed members of the gang would drive into airports and docks where they claimed they had come to collect the consignments before driving off with the spoils.

The Bowers brothers appeared in a heavily-guarded dock at Southwark Crown Court on Friday with Ian Burr, 35, Gary Mullen, 35, Lewis Nicholl, 54, William Freeman, 51, Spencer Chamberlain, 34, Joseph Ashman, 35, Jonathan Turner, 41 and Derek Blackburn, 48.

Tony Bowers, a promoter of The Green Walk, Chingford, Essex; Martin Bowers, a publican of Clarkson Road, Canning Town, east London; Paul Bowers, of Drew Road, Silvertown, Joseph Ashman; of Lambs Lane South, Rainham, Essex; Turner, of Wanlip Road, Plaistow, east London; Nicholl, of Old School Place, Union Street, Maidstone, Kent; Freeman, of Appleby Road, Canning Town, east London; Chamberlain, of Loves Cottage, Rook Plain, Heath Road, West Farleigh, Maidstone, Kent; Mullen, of Sudbury, East Ham, east London, and Burr of Aylesbury Drive, Laindon, Basildon, Essex, are all accused of conspiring to obtain property by deception at Gatwick.

All 11 men were remanded in custody by Judge Peter Fingret until a plea and directions hearing on October 1.