FOUR men were behind bars today for imprisoning a drug dealer in a shipping container on an industrial estate and threatening to "slice him up".

The Darlington gang - led by businessman Anthony Cooper - were angry that David Foster wanted to stop selling cannabis on the streets for him.

He was snatched from a taxi in a night-time carjacking, and told he would have his fingers cut off and legs broken before being disposed of in a duvet.

A judge told the gang they had terrified their victim, who feared he would be killed, and has since had to move away and live under protection.

The 26-year-old said in a statement that he now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal thoughts, flashbacks and cannot sleep.

Heavyweight boxer Christopher Burton - known by the nickname HighTower - was jailed for two years for his part in the plot to kidnap and hold Mr Foster.

Cooper, 30, of Bamburgh Place, was locked up for four years years after he pleaded guilty to charges of false imprisonment and producing Class B drugs.

The Northern Echo:
JAILED: Jonathan Lockey, left, and Damian Mottram

Damian Mottram, 30, Bedford Street, and Jonathan Lockey, 26, of Hurworth Place, were each given two years after admitting false imprisonment.

Burton, 34, of Lyonette Road, was cleared of false imprisonment, but found guilty of kidnap after a week-long trial at Teesside Crown Court in March.

Mr Foster was bundled into Lockey's car and taken to a lock-up on the Albert Hill industrial estate where he was told he would be tortured and killed.

In a video-recorded interview after the terror in July last year, he broke down in tears, and told detectives: "I thought I was going to die.

"I was petrified," he told police. "I'm a 26-year-old man who was crying like a little girl. I've never been that scared in my life, ever.

"I thought I was going to die. They told me I was staying there for three days and they were going to torture me and kill me. It was horrible.

"They told me they were going to slice me up . . . no-one is going to know this has happened. You are going to be wiped off the face of the world."

He said he had met the men a number of times before, while he spent seven months selling drugs for Cooper and had collected around £150,000.

Christopher Baker, for Cooper, said his partner has given birth since his arrest, and he has used his time behind bars on remand "very positively".

Mr Baker said: "He is a family man. He has the offer of employment upon release, so all of the positives for the for the future seem to be there."

Rod Hunt, mitigating, told the judge, Recorder Tahir Khan, QC, that Burton's involvement was "very much a fall from grace" for the former fighter.

The Northern Echo:

ABOVE: Darlington's Chris HighTower Burton, right, takes on Morecambe's David Ingleby during a Prizefighter event at Newcastle MetroRadio Arena in 2008. BELOW: Burton takes on Mathew Ellis live on Sky Sports

He said Burton had been working with police officers as part of his security business, and provided a bundle of references which spoke highly of him.

Mark Styles, for father-of-two Lockey, said he had worked hard since his release from a 2012 prison sentence, and built up a solar panel business.

"It's been hanging over his head for a long time," he said. "It is something he bitterly regrets, and he is ashamed of the way he has behaved."

Richard Herrmann, for mechanic Mottram, added: "It has been a very difficult period for him, really in limbo, not knowing what the outcome would be.

"This was a chance encounter between the quarrelling sides. This was not his quarrel. He was there at the time. You could say wrong place, wrong time."

Mr Recorder Khan told Burton: "You foolishly allowed your friendship with Mr Cooper to cloud your judgement, and behaved in an out-of-character way."

He told Cooper: "You were the prime mover. Had it not been for you, most likely, the others would not have offended in the way that they did."