FOUR men from Yorkshire have appeared before Blackburn magistrates charged in connection with an alleged £1.3 million robbery.

The court heard a lorry driver was dragged from his vehicle in an Altham lay-by by 10 masked men on January 5.

He was stripped and put in the back of a car while they emptied the lorry of its load of laptop computers.

The lorry was later set on fire and found burned out.

The lorry driver was dumped, naked, at the side of the M62.

Stephen James Morris, 29, of Parkways Close, Oulton, Leeds, Lee Wakefield, 32, of Far Fold Lane, Leeds, Lewis Knight, 27, of Leeds Road, Castleford, and Kirk Thompson, 31, of East Grange Road, Leeds, were all sent on bail to Burnley Crown Court.

They are charged with kidnapping Martin Vosecky, conspiring to rob him and arson.