Four masked kidnappers who abducted a householder and held him hostage overnight have received jail terms totalling more than 29 years.
Leicester Crown Court heard how the raiders broke into the Melton Mowbray home of Daniel Tillson, in Gartree Drive, where he was beaten with an iron bar and feared he would be killed.
The men were after money and cannabis, but when they realised none were available, they decided to kidnap him.
Mr Tillson was bungled into a van and taken to a house in Manvers Road, Nottingham.
His shocked brother was given an initial ransom demand for £10,000 and a kilo of cannabis.
He alerted the police who paid out £4,500 for the safe release of Mr Tillson (38).
During his ordeal the abductors threatened to bury the victim in a grave in remote woodland, as well as saying they would chop off his fingers and drown him.
The abductors, all from Nottingham, who admitted kidnap on May 19 and 20 last year are: Kenneth Wallace (23), of Manvers Street, Levi Wildridge (31), of Wadhurst Gardens, and Daniel South (31), of Walmer Road – who were each jailed for seven-and-a-half years.
Damien Hyland (30), of no fixed address, who pleaded guilty at an earlier stage, was jailed for six years and eight months.
Two women co-accused, both single mothers, were also sentenced for their later involvement.
Keisha Makanjuola (28) of Manvers Street, Netherfield, Nottingham, admitted falsely imprisoning Mr Tillson, and was jailed for four years.
Alisha Campbell (32), of Sneinton Boulevard, Nottingham, was found guilty by a jury of false imprisonment, and jailed for five years.
Sentencing, Judge Simon Hammond said: "There were a chilling degree of threats and cruelty, ruthlessness and sadism, without any mercy, causing great distress to Daniel Tillson and his brother.
"The defendants were playing for high stakes.
"This was serious crime.
"It was a team job.
"There were 32 spine-chilling ransom calls made to Aaron Tillson, which I listened to during Campbell's trial and at one point they demanded £10,000 but reduced as time went on.
"It must have been a terrifying ordeal for Daniel and Aaron Tillson."
Daniel Bishop, prosecuting, said the male kidnappers targeted the victim, believing him to have a stash of money and drugs at his home in Melton.
But all they found were 16 immature cannabis plants and no cash.
Mr Tillson, in a statement read out, said the four men burst into his home at about 10pm when he was watching television.
One of them struck him with an iron bar and he curled into a ball to protect himself.
He said: "They seemed very angry and kept searching the property.
"After 15 minutes one said '**** it, we're taking him' and I immediately realised they were going to kidnap me."
As he was driven off in the back of a Citroen Berlingo van they began calling his brother, Aaron Tillson, making demands.
The victim was made to cover his face with a hat and taken a house in Manvers Street, via a trip to remote Colwick Woods, and detained in a box room.
Campbell, who lived elsewhere, had the tenancy of the house where the victim was held hostage overnight; where Makanjuola was also staying.
More than 30 phone calls – tape recorded by the police - between the victim's brother and the male kidnappers negotiating the ransom.
The victim, in his statement, said: "I didn't think I was going to get out of the situation alive."
The police meanwhile raised £4,500, noting down the serial numbers, and a plain clothes detective delivered the cash in a carrier bag to a salt bin at Nottingham's Lady Bay Retail Park about 3pm the next day.
CCTV footage showed two male kidnappers, at 3.10pm, collecting the cash in a Citroen DS3 car – which Campbell had earlier borrowed from her aunt – before the victim was released from the Berlingo van nearby.
He had suffered a black eye and bruising.
Both women were arrested in a car with South and Hyland within half an hour of the ransom being paid.
Makanjuola had £1,000 of the ransom money in her handbag and a further £50 in her pocket – as police had noted the serial numbers.
A further £1,860 was recovered in the vehicle.
Within hours Wildridge splashed out £550 of the ransom cash to pay for gold teeth jewellery at Grillz 4 U in Nottinham.
In mitigation, defence counsel said the plan was originally to burgle the house for cannabis.
James Varley, for Hyland said: "This was a shambles rather than a plan.
"It spiralled out of all control."
Richard Thatcher for South, who also admitted producing cannabis at a flat and was given a four month concurrent sentence, said: "The majority of his offending is of a minor nature; this isn't his normal league."
Simon Gruchy, for Wallace, said: "Matters escalated beyond anything he'd anticipated."
Jonathan Straw, for Wildridge, who had his Berlingo van confiscated by the court: "It wasn't his idea to kidnap him, but he accepts driving Mr Tillson away."
Raglan Ashton, for Campbell, a care worker, said: "It was wholly out of character; but she acquiesced and went along with the quickly developing events."
Leanne Summers, for Makanjuola, said: "She had no prior knowledge of what was about to happen and describes her actions as naive."
Afterwards, Detective Chief Inspector Shaun Orton, who led the investigation said: "The kidnap was perpetrated by greedy individual who were violent when necessary.
"When several members of that team were arrested several claimed the victim was in on it.
"A thorough police inquiry proved that to be untrue and identified the remaining members of the gang, including Hyland on the run in London.
"The overwhelming evidence the investigating team produced led to five out of the six pleading guilty.
"It spared the victim from the mental anguish of having to give evidence in court."
Daniel Tillson received a police caution for having immature cannabis plants and equipment growing at his home; and an order was made for their destruction.
Judge pays tribute to detectives who worked on case
Judge Simon Hammond paid tribute to the detectives' "skill and nerve" on the kidnap case and publicly commended intelligence analyst, Gemma Clarke.
He said Ms Clarke, a Leicestershire Police civilian employee, had prepared charts tracking the movements of the defendants collating information from CCTV footage, automatic number plate recognition cameras, speed cameras and mobile phone data.
Judge Hammond said: "Those pictures told a story and
"It was a fantastic piece of work and I was highly impressed.
"It was splendid investigative work and I am publicly commending her.
"The police team, who handled this inquiry which required skill and nerve, are to be congratulated.
"The evidence was so compelling the kidnappers all pleaded guilty and that's a tribute to the officers involved."
Detective Chief Inspector Shaun Orton, said afterwards: "I'm pleased the judge recognised the work that Gemma did.
"There was a lot of evidence she put together in a format that could be easily understood by the jury in the Campbell trial.
"She did a great deal of work and had a mammoth task."
"Once the kidnap was reported, there was a surveillance team deployed in the first phase and it gave the team a great foundation upon which to work."