A thug terrorised an innocent couple and threatened to set their home on fire if they failed to hand over £11,000.
Sarfraz Riaz, 39, promised to involve gangsters if the couple failed to cough up the money he claimed their relative owed him.
Riaz said he lent the money to a friend he had been living with but, after the man failed to repay him, Riaz tracked down his family and ordered them to settle the debt.
The couple, who lived in the Wigan area, were left so terrified by Riaz's threats of violence that they were forced to flee their homes and jobs.
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At Manchester Crown Court on Tuesday (August 31), Riaz was jailed for two years and seven months after pleaded guilty to a charge of blackmail.
The court heard Riaz lent a sum of money to his friend while they were living together at an address in Birmingham.
The friend then moved out of the property on December 3 of last year without leaving a forwarding address.
Riaz then tracked down the man's brother and sister-in-law to tell them a group of men were looking for him, the court was told.
A man showed up at the couple's address asking for the brother's phone number, which he claimed was so that he could inform him about what was happening.
However, the number was instead given to Riaz who contacted the victim and asked him to settle the £11,000 debt.
If he failed to do so, Riaz told the man he and his father's homes would be set on fire and the couple's cars would be stolen.
The court heard he also threatened to involve a 'dangerous gangster' called Mr Moffat and would hold the man's relative hostage if the money was not paid by 6pm the following day.
After receiving the threats, the couple fled their home and stopped answering phone calls.
Yet Riaz continued to bombard them with messages, repeating his threats and warning that police would not be able to protect the couple 24 hours a day.
Detectives were able to identify Riaz as the person behind the messages and arrested him on December 8.
Despite his arrest, the couple remained so 'traumatised' that they decided to move house and switch jobs, the court was told.
Preet-Paul Tutt, mitigating, said no property or money was ever exchanged between the victims and Riaz, and his client had never taken any action to enforce his threats.
Mr Tutt said Riaz had since had time to reflect and was 'shocked' by his actions.
"He simply does not know what came over him during that period," he told the court.
"He was not thinking about the consequences."
Mr Tutt added that Riaz had been due to get married in August and had also missed the birth of his daughter while in custody.
"He feels helpless," he added.
"It pains him that the reality is he is not going to see his daughter any time soon. Neither is he likely to see his fiancee any time soon.
"He accepts and acknowledges he has no one else to blame but himself."
Sentencing Riaz, of Shirley Road, Birmingham, to 31 months in prison, Judge Elizabeth Nicholls told him he had 'held a reign of terror' over the couple.
She added: "You drove the victims from their home address. They believed the threats and did not feel safe in their own home.
"There can be no doubt they were completely innocent victims of your campaign."
