A BURY man is facing jail for his part in a plot to kidnap a wealthy businessman and hold him hostage for a £2.5million ransom.

Craig Adams, aged 23, of Boardman Lane, Bury, was the driver of the van which was used to take 58-year-old shopkeeper Javed Mukhtar to a hide-out where he was kept for three weeks last September.

The High Court in Glasgow heard the gang bundled Mr Mukhtar, from nearby Crossmyloof into the back of a van, before shooting at his son and driving the hostage to Manchester.

Alex Prentice, prosecuting, told the court that Mr Mukhtar's captors warned his family that if the ransom was not paid he would be seriously injured, even murdered.

Detectives received a tip-off and the kidnappers were arrested after an undercover police officer left a suitcase containing £400,000 near an emergency telephone on the M6 near Charnock Richard in Lancashire.

The men will be sentenced next month after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnap.

They are Darren Wright, aged 31, Peter Haining, aged 28, and Ian Rosales, 19, all of Thorn Close, Heywood, David Smith, aged 37, of Atholl Drive, Heywood, and Leslie White, aged 65, of Craigavon, County Armagh.