A FORMER nightclub boss from the North-East appeared in court today alongside his elderly mother to face drug charges going back almost 15 years.

Gary Robb, 46, and mother Mavis, 71, were arrested at Stansted Airport on Wednesday after being deported from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Mr Robb is alleged to have fled abroad in 1997 after the Colosseum club in Norton, near Stockton, where he was manager, was raided by police a year earlier.

The mother and son appeared together in the dock at Teesside Crown Court for a brief hearing in front of the Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Peter Fox, QC.

No pleas were entered this afternoon's five-minute case, and Judge Fox remanded both in custody ahead of their next appearance on February 27.

Robb, of West Road, Denton Burn, Newcastle, is alleged to have been part of a plot to supply Ecstasy, cannabis, amphetamine sulphate and cannabis resin.

His mother, who gave the same address and looked bemused in the dock, is alleged to have helped her son leave the jurisdiction of the UK courts in 1997.

She will face two charges of doing acts tending and intended to pervert the course of justice between September 18 and November 30, 1997, the court heard.

Mr Robb is charged with two counts of conspiracy to supply a Class A drug and Class B drugs â€" between July 1994 and June 1995, and between October 1995 and February 1996.

He also faces a further charge of failing to surrender to Teesside Crown Court on July 24, 1998.