The fifth member of the failed July 21 suicide bombers, who lost his nerve at the last moment, was jailed for 33 years today.

Manfo Asiedu, 34, pleaded guilty earlier at the Old Bailey to conspiring to cause explosions. He confessed to buying all the hydrogen peroxide used to make the bombs in 2005, but said that he refused to take part in the attacks.

Instead, Asiedu dumped his bomb in a wooded area in Little Wormwood Scrubs, in West London, where it was found two days later. His target had been White City tube in West London.

The home-made bombs on Underground trains at Shepherds Bush, Oval and Warren Street stations and a bus in Hackney Road failed to go off only because mistakes were made in compiling the ingredients to make the explosives.

Muktar Said Ibrahim, Ramzi Mohammed, Yassin Omar and Hussain Osman were all sentenced to a minimum of 40 years in prison when they were convicted in July for their part in the attacks.

Asiedu, who came to Britain on a false Ghanaian passport, was recruited by the al-Qaeda cell to buy masses of chemicals needed to build the bombs. During his first trial at Woolwich Crown Court he confessed to making the bombs but claimed that he thought the devices were fake.

He was supposed to target White City Tube station in West London. He was sentenced today at Kingston Crown Court in south west London.

Asiedu, who lived with two of the bombers at the "factory" in New Southgate, North London, also defused a booby-trap left in a cupboard there.

The court heard he was a “prodigious liar” who helped in the cover-op operation after the bombs failed to detonate.

Nigel Sweeney, QC, for the prosecution, said Asiedu carried out the vital task of buying the hydrogen peroxide but also “brought some significant talents to that role”.

He told the court: “His experience as a painter and decorator would help with the false cover story that it was being purchased for painting and decorating. His appearance was unlikely to raise suspicion.”

Stephen Kamlish QC, defending, said his client, a devout Muslim, had “fallen in with the wrong crowd” after arriving in Britain from Ghana seeking a better life.

He said the other July 21 plotters took him in and gave him somewhere to live but also exposed him to their extremist views while they were living in the ’cauldron’ of the council flat.

He said: “They were portraying Islam in a way that he had not even thought of prior to meeting them. They were telling him that this was what all good young Muslim should do. Stupidly and criminally he gave in.”

Despite arriving in Britain almost four years ago, little is known about his true identity.

He is believed to be Sumailia Abubakhari, to be 28 and to have been born in the northern region of Ghana known as Bogatanga, or Land of Rocks. He claimed that his Muslim father owned a pharmacy and a construction company, that he belonged to the Nabda tribe, known as the Honest Fools, and his mother was a Christian businesswoman.

In July 2003 he borrowed money from his sister in America and paid $400 for a false Ghanaian passport, fake bank statements and a bogus invitation to the UK. He arrived at Heathrow on a six-month visa in December 2003 and spent his first month at the home of a Ghanaian cab driver in north London.

He is the most unlikely suicide bomber among the 21/7 terrorists. He is dark-skinned and claimed to have suffered racism from his lighter skinned accomplices -all from Ethiopia, Eritrea or Somalia.

He did not attend the jihad camps the others frequented, showed little interest in their collection of extremist videos and did not discuss politics and world affairs. Instead, he played basketball and enjoyed an occasional cannabis joint and singing, especially Bob Marley songs. He worked as a handyman and caretaker at Finchley Mosque, in north London, where he first encountered Omar.

He claimed that he had been duped by the men he thought were his friends but when questioned by police he lied repeatedly. He remained loyal to Ibrahim and the others until the third month of the trial when he said that he wanted to tell the truth.

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Earlier the sixth man accused of plotting the attacks, Adel Yahya, 25, was jailed for six years and nine months after pleading guilty to collecting information of a kind likely to be useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism.

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