A BURNLEY man has been jailed for 10 years for his part in the abduction and beating of an Edinburgh businessman.

Stephen Snape, 29, was among three men who snatched newsagent Tahar Javaid from outside his Scottish home, bundled him into the back of a van and drove him to England.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, Lord Menzies sentenced fellow defendants Tahir Rashid, 35, and Saquib Hussain, 21, to 10 years and three months and six years respectively.

During his ordeal the 37-year-old was beaten with a metal baton and a knuckleduster.

The High Court earlier heard Mr Javaid owed Rashid between £4,000 and £5,000 following the sale of a Mercedes car.

A fourth accused, David Livesey, 28, was found guilty of an amended charge of detaining Mr Javaid against his will and conveying him from Edinburgh to the M6 motorway in Cumbria against his will. He was given two years.

The court was told Snape had 32 previous convictions two for causing actual bodily harm, five for common law assault and numerous road traffic offences.

Snape, from Burnley but described in court as an Edinburgh prisoner, denied assaulting and abducting Mr Javaid outside his Edinburgh home on August 31 last year.

Rashid and Hussain, also described as prisoners in Edinburgh, and Livesey, of Gladwood, Manchester, also denied the charges.

It was alleged that they smashed the driver's window of his car.

They repeatedly struck him on the head and body with a metal baton and pulled him out of the car. They were accused of forcing him into a van, detaining him against his will and repeatedly striking him on the head and body with the metal baton, a police-style asp and a knuckleduster, all to his severe injury.

They took their victim from Edinburgh to the M6 motorway in Cumbria, where they were stopped by police.

Judge Lord Menzies told Mr Javaid's kidnappers at the High Court in Edinburgh: "I regard this as a very sinister and extremely alarming offence."