A Bradford man involved in a fake kidnap plot to extort £300,000 was today starting a six-and-a-half-year jail term.

Liaqat Khan, 28, of Highgate, Heaton, was one of three people who attempted to blackmail a businessman by claiming that his girlfriend had been abducted.

The girlfriend, Hina Uroog, 26, of Moss Side, Manchester, who was at the centre of plot, was jailed for four years and nine months at Manchester Crown Court today.

She was heard screaming for help in the background as ransom demands to her boyfriend, Sajad Ali, were made over the phone, the court was told.

The scheme, involving Uroog's lover, Kashif Ahmed, began on May 16 when she dropped off her two children at school but then failed to picked them up.

Later that night Mr Ali, 34, received a call from an unknown man telling him that Uroog had been kidnapped. He was told that she would be harmed if he did not pay £300,000 for her release.

He agreed to pay the ransom but called the police, who listened in to further phone calls.

A meeting was set up in Longsight, Manchester, for the money to change hands and Uroog was spotted standing with an Asian man at the junction of Beech Range and Victoria Road.

Her "kidnapper" Ahmed ran off when he saw the officers and threw a loaded Russian-made 9mm gun into a garden.

Detectives found his accomplice Khan, crouching behind a van on the driveway of a nearby house. A sawn-off shotgun was hidden underneath the vehicle.

Police uncovered Uroog's role when she was seen frantically trying to dismantle a mobile phone recovered at the scene which contained intimate images of herself and Ahmed.

Ahmed, 23, of Thornley Road, Fallowfield, and Khan, both pleaded guilty to blackmail, possessing a firearm and criminal use of a firearm.

Ahmed was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment and Khan was jailed for six-and-a-half years.

Uroog, of Upper Lloyd Street, admitted blackmail.

Outside court, Detective Superintendent Tony Cook, who led the investigation, said: "This was an excellent operation which has ultimately led to some very dangerous people being taken off the streets.

"Just as importantly, a number of deadly firearms, which were capable of being fired, have been recovered and now taken out of circulation.

"This was a calculating and cynical attempt to extort money from an innocent victim who would have been terribly concerned for Uroog's welfare.

"That this diabolical plan failed is testament to the action of the victim who called the police and to the officers themselves who acted swiftly to arrest all those involved."