An estate agent who kidnapped her former employer and had him tortured for seven hours in revenge for being sacked was jailed for ten years yesterday.

Ambreen Gul, 23, recruited another sacked colleague and two other young men to carry out the plan to extort a £200,000 ransom from Waqas Malik.

She lured him to her flat in Hackney, East London, on the pretence that she wanted him to sell the property. When Mr Malik, 48, walked through the door, masked attackers kicked, punched and hit him with an imitation pistol.

The court was told that as he screamed, “What have I done? What have I done?”, one of his attackers ordered him to “shut up or be shot”.

During seven hours of torture, one of his captors stood on Mr Malik’s head, while another said that he would never see his family again unless he raised the ransom. He was told that failure would result in the murder of himself and his son, aged 13.

After forcing him to call his wife to raise the money, the captors gave him lorazepam, a powerful sedative. But the medication made Mr Malik, who suffers from a heart condition, fall into a coma. When he lost consciousness, Gul panicked and ordered the bound, blindfolded and bleeding victim to be put in an office chair, bundled into a waiting car and driven to his home. Once there Gul told Mr Malik’s wife that her husband was drunk and had sexually assaulted her, before driving off. Mr Malik was taken to hospital where doctors found his face and head covered in bruises and cuts, and ligature marks on his wrists from the tape bindings.

Southwark Crown Court was told that Gul was the instigator and ringleader of the attack and was “motivated by greed and revenge” after her sacking from Mr Malik’s business, Skylord Properties, in Ilford.

The other members of the gang expected a £40,000 cut from the ransom demand.

Gul was jailed for ten years and her former workmate, Mukshud Ali, 18, was jailed for seven years and nine months.

Quasim Ahmed, 21, an IT student, was sentenced to eight years for his part in the attack and Shakib Chowdhury, 19, a former Arsenal and West Ham under-17 footballer, was given eight and a half years.

All four were variously convicted or admitted falsely imprisoning Mr Malik between June 17 and 20 last year, wounding with intent, blackmail, having an imitation firearm with intent, theft and administering a “poison or noxious substance” with intent.

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