A MAN has appeared in court charged with being part of a year-long operation to smuggle Iraqi illegal immigrants into the UK at a Shipley car wash.

Ali Mahmood Ahmed, 37, is accused of running the conspiracy at the Pit Stop Car Wash in Valley Road with "others unknown", Bradford and Keighley Magistrates' Court heard.

Ahmed was arrested during an early morning raid on the car wash by Home Office officials and crime investigators on March 17 this year.

It took place after detailed information was gathered by undercover officers named in court only as Ian and Dan.

Ahmed has been charged with "conspiring to do an act to facilitate the commission of a breach of UK immigration law by a non-EU person."

The court heard brief details of the charge, brought by the Home Office.

Prosecutor Vince O'Malley outlined that between March 20, 2014 and March 17 this year at the Pit Stop Car Wash on Valley Road, Ahmed is alleged to have conspired with two undercover officers named Ian and Dan and other unknown people to commit an act, namely "clandestinely smuggle Iraqi migrants from Europe to the UK, which facilitated the commission of a breach of immigration law by unknown Iraqi nationals".

Ahmed who was originally registered by the court as living at the car wash, but who has now moved to Wharncliffe Road, Shipley, wore a smart dark grey suit and a beige shirt when he appeared in court yesterday afternoon.

He was flanked by a Kurdish interpretor, who relayed the charges to Ahmed.

District Judge Susan Bouch was informed by prosecutors that no other people were being charged as co-conspirators.

She was also told Ahmed was likely to plead not guilty.

She told Ahmed the charge he faces was too serious to be dealt with by magistrates and remanded him on bail to appear at Bradford Crown Court on May 1.

The bail conditions are that he lives and sleeps at his address in Wharncliffe Avenue and that he reports to Trafalgar House police station in Bradford each Monday and Friday.

The hand car wash is formally known as the Norwood Garage, and the site was used for the sale of builders supplies before it became Pit Stop Car Wash in 2009.