A prominent loyalist from Belfast's Shankill area has been remanded in custody accused of extortion.
Mr Thomas Potts, a community worker from Dover Street, was originally accused of making an unwarranted demand of £3,000 sterling and £175 sterling a week from a policeman he thought was a businessman, between August 7th and 15th.
At the end of a Laganside Court remand hearing over two days, during which he listened to tape recordings of phone calls allegedly involving Mr Potts and an undercover police officer, Magistrate George Conner amended the amounts involved in the charge to £1,500 and £125 sterling a week.
But he rejected arguments from Mr Potts' barrister, Mr Jim Mallon, that his client's human rights had been breached because he'd been "incited" into an act of unlawfulness by police acting as "agents provocateur."
The magistrate also refused to have the name and rank of the undercover police officer revealed in court.
Before remanding Mr Potts in custody for a month on the extortion charge, the magistrate said he had listened very carefully to the evidence but "was quite satisfied, especially having heard the tapes, that the defendant is not a vulnerable person and there was sufficient reason for him to be remanded".