10 years for sacked employee who tortured ex-boss

A “GREEDY and wicked” estate agent, who hoped to pocket a fortune kidnapping and torturing her former boss, was jailed for 10 years yesterday.

Ambreen Gul, 23, was so furious when she was fired that she recruited another sacked colleague and two others to make her ex-boss pay. Having lured Waqas Malik to her flat, the unsuspecting businessman was kicked, punched and pistol whipped repeatedly.

During seven hours of suffering, one of his captors stood on his head, while another warned he would never see his family again unless he raised £200,000 (€252,000) ransom. He was told failure would result in the executions of both himself and his 13-year-old son. Having made several phone calls to his wife in a desperate bid to raise the cash, he was given a powerful sedative. But the get-rich-quick plot went wrong when the 48-year-old fell ill. London’s Southwark Crown Court was told gun-toting Gul immediately “panicked” and the “comatose” businessman was taken to hospital.

In the dock with Gul, of Hackney, east London, were Mukshud Ali, 18, of Essex, who was sentenced to seven years and nine months, Quasim Ahmed, 21, of Barking, who was jailed for eight years, and former West Ham under-17s footballer Shakib Chowdhury, 20, from Surrey, who was sent to a young offenders’ institution for eight-and-a-half years. All four were variously convicted or admitted falsely imprisoning the businessman between June 17 and 20 last year.