At different points during his ordeal, one of his captors stood on his head while another warned him he would never see his family again unless he came up with £200,000 ($419,000). He was reportedly told he and his 13-year-old son would be executed if he did not produce the ransom.

The scheme started to go awry when the captors gave their victim a powerful sedative after he made several panicked calls to his wife for the money, the Daily Mail reported. London's Southwark Crown Court was told that Gul immediately panicked when the victim fell ill and the captors delivered the man bleeding, semi-conscious and in an office chair to his home, where she told his wife he was drunk and sexually assaulted her. The stricken businessman was taken to hospital where doctors found his face and head covered in cuts and bruises and marks on his wrists where he had been bound with tape, the paper reported.

Gul's co-conspirator Mukshud Ali, 18, was sentenced to seven years and nine months in a young offenders' institution along with Quasim Ahmed, 21, who was jailed for eight years, and former West Ham under-17s footballer Shakib Chowdhury, 20, who was sent to a young offenders' institution to serve 8½ years, the paper said. The sentencing judge, Deborah Taylor, reportedly told them: "You were involved in this wicked, premeditated and brutal plan to lure Mr Malik to a flat where he was beaten up and tied to a chair with his eyes and mouth bound.

"His seven hours of suffering caused him pain, fear and distress ... and he believed he was going to be shot. "You showed a reckless disregard to his health and safety. "He was only released when you became scared for yourselves after he was drugged and became semi-conscious."

The judge continued: "He not only suffered physical injuries - cuts and bruises to his head and body - for which he had to have treatment in hospital for four days, but suffered psychological injury and the exacerbation of heart and spinal conditions." The judge said the victim's family had suffered greatly and was now considering leaving the country.

smh.com.au