POLICE who bugged a tyre depot as part of a drugs crackdown heard a sinister plot to kidnap and torture a man who had stolen money from a gang at gunpoint.

Asad Majid wanted to hold the rival hostage and chop off his fingers for double-crossing friend and business partner Mohammed Mahfooz.

A court heard yesterday how the plan was foiled when police raided Riverside Tyres, in Stockton, after they learnt Majid had bought a gun.

Majid and Mahfooz were jailed for eight years for conspiring to supply a Class A drug, while Majid had 18 months added for conspiracy to kidnap.

A third man, Tahere Hussain, was given a seven-year sentence for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs

Two men who visited the garage during the undercover surveillance last year were each jailed for 18 months for their part in the conspiracy.

Lee Mughal and David Jones were caught by the listening device talking about buying and supplying drugs.

The pair were told by Judge Julian Goose they would have been jailed for much longer if they had gone through with any of the proposed deals.

Teesside Crown Court was told that Majid, Mahfooz and Hussain put money into a kitty to buy thousands of pounds of cocaine after an earlier deal went wrong.

A courier working for Majid and Mahfooz was caught by police with two kilos of heroin, which left one gang without its drugs, and the Teesside dealers in debt to it.

Sean Morris, prosecuting, said Mahfooz travelled to buy more drugs from the gang, but was held at gunpoint, threatened and robbed of the money.

Majid hatched the plot to seek revenge, but police swooped when their bugs picked up details of the gun and planned torture.

Defence barristers argued yesterday that the men were "wannabes" who "talked big", but would never have been in the position to deal in drugs of such quantities.

Majid, 37, of Hartington Road, Mahfooz, 36, of Parliament Street, and Hussain, 31, of Richmond Street, all Stockton, admitted the charges.

Jones, 27, of Roseberry Road, and Mughal, 25, of Hickling Grove, also Stockton, were found guilty at the end of a four-day trial last month.

Legal teams acting for Majid, Mahfooz, Hussain and Jones said they were decent, hard-working family men, driven to drug-dealing because of financial pressures.

Helen Hendry, for Mughal, maintained he was not part of a conspiracy, but accepted he visited the garage to try to sell anabolic steroids to Mahfooz.

After the case, Detective Inspector Chris Sadler, who led Operation Grinstead, said: "These criminals were intent on supplying high-quality drugs to dealers who would, in turn, flood the streets with terrible narcotics, destroying lives and driving up crime.

"They were prepared to use extreme violence to maintain their position in the underworld and must now face the consequences.

"Some of those convicted are family men who put greed before decency, and were prepared to take large risks to obtain wealth and status in the criminal fraternity."