A THUG jailed for his part in a ‘callous and sadistic’ plot to kidnap two Blackburn men, has been told by top judges he cannot complain about his prison term.

Two of the kidnappers posed as police officers, before handcuffing their victims, bundling them into a car and attacking them with weapons – including a sword and a sledgehammer.

Farhan Aslam, 20, of Whitworth Road, Rochdale, was jailed for five years and four months at Preston Crown Court in last July after admitting two counts of kidnapping on the second day of his trial.

At London’s Criminal Appeal Court, he claimed the sentence was ‘too long’.

But his appeal was dismissed by three judges, who said the term was ‘not excessive’ for his involvement in a ‘very serious’ crime.

The court heard the victims, Salim Mulla, 20, and Naeem Mohammed, 19, believed they were going to die during their two-hour ordeal in December 2011.

They were approached by two members of the gang, who were dressed in police stab-proof vests in Sandwich Close, Shadsworth.

They were dragged out of their car, handcuffed and forced into a Vauxhall Meriva and taken to Haslingden Old Road, where they were assaulted with a cosh and sledgehammer.

Then after being threatened with a sword and sprayed with CS gas they were dumped - still in handcuffs - near Shadsworth Leisure Centre.