Drug dealer jailed for men's kidnap and torture

Gang leader Daniel Lake admitted false imprisonment and blackmail

A drug dealer who orchestrated the kidnap and torture of three men, following a dispute over a £10,000 debt, has been jailed for almost 12 years.

Daniel Lake, 33, led the gang which held the victims captive for two hours at a garage in South Shields, and attacked them with weapons including a blow-torch , Newcastle Crown Court heard.

The garage owner, a henchman and five others, including a woman who drove the victims, were previously sentenced to jail for their part in the incident.

Lake admitted false imprisonment and blackmail, as did his accomplice, Jonathon Ferguson, 31, who was jailed for eight years and seven months.

The court heard one of the victims reportedly owed Lake £10,000. That victim, along with his brother and an associate were taken to Craig Seales' garage, behind Fowler Street, on 18 September 2023.

While two of the men were beaten - with their repeated screams captured on CCTV footage - the brother, "bloodied and scared", was driven to the family home and business to try to scrape together the money owed to Lake.

Jonathon Ferguson, of Quarry Lane, was also sentenced for domestic violence

Judge Amanda Rippon said phone records showed Lake, of Landseer Gardens, made multiple calls to the other defendants arranging the men's kidnap and abuse, because he "wanted [his] money".

She said Lake had been released from prison six months before the attack for a similar offence, in which he and others held a man captive with a knife against his throat while demanding "thousands of pounds".

The judge said Lake was "without a doubt" the leader of the attack on 18 September, adding: "But for you, these dreadful offences would never have occurred."

She stated the victims were "held captive, variously tortured, and blackmailed" in a small office at the garage - before being released on the promise they would pay £20,000.

'Entirely innocent'

She said afterwards there were failed attempts to try and destroy the CCTV footage from the garage, noting the "banter and a jovial atmosphere" among the gang.

She said the group inflicted injuries including broken ribs and a smashed hand, but held back from inflicting more serious wounds which could have "defeated the purpose of the enterprise" intended to cause the victims "very serious fear".

"That was done in spades," the judge said.

The brother, who the judge deemed "entirely innocent", genuinely believed all three would be killed by the gang, leading the family to flee South Shields in the aftermath of the incident, the court heard.

He described the garage as resembling a film set where a torture scene might be filmed, with weapons, including a bottle of acid, laid out on a table.

"I thought we were going to die," he said, in a statement read out by Judge Rippon.

'Dangerous'

Judge Rippon said she could not be sure which of the gang had actually attacked the men, but she held all those involved equally responsible because they knew what was going to happen to the three men.

She described Lake as "dangerous", jailing him for 11 years and eight months, with a further two years and four months to be served on extended licence.

Restraining orders were made - to last indefinitely - banning the defendants from contacting the brothers.

Mobile phones and weapons, including machetes and knives belonging to the gang, were also ordered to be destroyed.

One month of the jail term given to Ferguson, of Quarry Lane, was for him dragging his ex-girlfriend by her hair and damaging her phone. A restraining order banned him from contacting her for 10 years.