Two men threatened to take a man to England and kill him unless his parents paid them thousands of pounds.

Ziarat Ali and Basharat Khan extorted £5000 from the mother and father of Bilaal Afzal.

Mr Afzal repeatedly phoned his parents with ransom demands after he was taken from Edinburgh to the Borders village of Newtown St Boswells.

After being paid the money, Ali, 34, and Khan, 30, were then stopped by police on the A7 in Gorebridge, Midlothian, as they returned to Edinburgh.

Lord Brailsford jailed Ali for 18 months and Khan for 30 months on Monday after they admitted extortion.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard the first ransom demand was made by Afzal, then aged 23, to his father at his shop in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, on September 8 last year.

The following day a man representing Ali and Khan turned up at the shop to collect £5000.

Advocate depute Peter Ferguson QC said: "In that first call, Bilaal told his father that £11,000 was wanted for his release. It was also stated that if the money was not forthcoming he would be taken to Bradford and killed."

Further calls were made and, after Mr Afzal's father said he could not raise that sum, Ali and Khan dropped their ransom demand to £5000.

Ali, of Roslyn Place and Khan, of Kingswood Terrace, both Bradford, in Yorkshire, had earlier faced a further charge of abducting and assaulting Mr Afzal.

However, after they admitted extortion the Crown accepted their not guilty pleas.

A third accused, 49-year-old Patrick Loyden, was cleared of all all charges.