A judge has questioned why a man facing a bootlegging charge would want to choose to go to Spain over the delights of a British resort.

Long distance lorry driver William Nelson had asked for his bail to be relaxed so that he could take a two-day trip to Benidorm, but Judge Charles Byers suggested the Essex town of Frinton-on-Sea as an alternative.

“Why does he have to keep going to Spain?” he asked. “Why can’t he go to Frinton? When does he want to go on this jolly?”

Nelson, of The Sidings, Staines, Middlesex, was in the dock at Maidstone Crown Court with six others facing a charge of evading duty on cigarettes between October 1 2011 and April 26 last year.

The judge said: “I am concerned about this Spanish trip. Is there a surety involved? It doesn’t seem to be right to allow someone to go to Spain for two days when he faces a very serious charge.

“In the circumstances I have got to deal with it, but he is not to take any other holiday.

"I regard it as a little impertinent when he has got a bail condition of residence that he should book such a trip.”

Judge Byers ordered Nelson, 56, to present himself at court at 10am next Wednesday, the day after his return and warned he would be arrested if he failed to do so.

“Do not book any more holidays, because you won’t be going,” he added.

Nelson and his co-defendants will return to court on December 11 to enter pleas to the charges they face, some involving drug smuggling.