A COUPLE accused alongside the man's father of modern slavery at a family business are hoping to get the charges against them thrown out.

Sajid Dalal, aged 41, and his wife Anisha Dalal, aged 37, are directors of the Bolton Halal Chicken meat processing factory in Moncrieffe Street near Bolton town centre that was formally Bolton Poultry Products.

The couple, who have three children, stand accused of servitude under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 alongside his father Ebrahim Dalal, aged 78, who was a director of Bolton Poultry Products.

The charge relates to the alleged treatment of a single male worker at the firm's processing plant which Greater Manchester Police raided on March 7.

The three defendants, all of Ellesmere Gardens, Great Lever, appeared at Bolton Crown Court.

They did not enter pleas and a hearing to consider their application to dismiss the case has been scheduled for June 24.

Sajid Dalal, Anisha Dalal and Ebrahim Dalal have all been granted conditional bail until then.

The Modern Slavery Act 2015 uses the European Convention on Human Rights' definition of servitude, which is "an obligation to provide one’s services that is imposed by the use of coercion".