SIX members of a vicious gang who kidnapped and tortured Mohsin Patel in East London for �70,000 ransom have been jailed for a total of 34 years. The 26-year-old mobile phone store boss in London’s Canary Wharf had just arrived home from work when he was abducted on his doorstep

By Mike Brooke

SIX members of a vicious gang who kidnapped and tortured mobile phone store boss Mohsin Patel in East London for �70,000 ransom have been jailed for a total of 34 years.

The 26-year-old assistant manager at Carphone Warehouse in London’s Canary Wharf had just arrived home from work when he was abducted on the doorstep of his house in Plaistow just three miles away.

He was driven to a hideout where he went through a 23-hour ordeal blindfolded, burned with hot knives and whipped with a belt.

He was even being tortured while he was made to call his brother for the ransom. His brother could hear his screams.

EXPLOSIVES

Police eventually traced the hide-out to a first-floor flat in Ilford’s Huneysuckle Court where they blew the doors off with explosives and busted in.

Gang leader Andrew Boateng, 21, was jailed eight years when he appeared at Southwark crown court for sentencing yesterday (Monday).

His two right-hand men were also locked up, Yaw Darko-Kwakye, 25, for six-and-a-half years and Mohammed Nawaz, also 25, for six years.

Douglas Poko, 22, who allowed his flat to be used, was caged for five-and-a-half years. Benjamin Boakye, 19, and Adnan Kyani, 20, were each given four years’ in a young person’s institution.

23-HOUR ORDEAL

Det Con Anthony Stevens said today: “The hostage and his family were subjected to a terrifying and lengthy ordeal over 23 hours.

“This kidnap was clearly a planned event on a completely innocent victim.

“But kidnapping strangers, thankfully, is rare in the UK.”

Four of the gang had cased’ Mohsin’s house a week before the kidnapping, then lay in wait for him to arrive home one evening in April last year.

Gang members tried to escape from a first-floor window when cops eventually busted their way into the hideout.

But police were waiting for them outside.