'You have f***** had it now' - South Yorkshire drug enforcer kidnapped school mate at gunpoint

Louis Ingram seemed friendly when he pulled up beside his 22-year-old victim in VW Golf at 11.15am, on December 4, prosecutor Louise Gallagher said.

But as they drove off at speed, he said: “You have f***** had it now – you’re not getting out of this car.”

They were heading towards a scrapyard called Booths when Ingram pulled over and rang someone, asking: “What shall I do with him Brad? Shall I stab him or shoot him?”

Ingram demanded his victim pay £300 by Friday or he would kill him and his family. The drug debt was passed on from another man, Sheffield Crown Court heard on Thursday.

Ingram put on a latex glove, produced a Walther PPK 7.65 pistol and showed it was loaded with four rounds of ammuniton.

His victim was crying and believed he was going to be shot as Ingram pushed the gun into his side.

He punched him in the face around six times, causing his left eye to bleed, then made another call saying: “Brad, I have done what I needed to do.”

Ingram returned his victim to town and, as they passed a police car, said: “What are you going to do? Grass on me?”

His victim was dropped off in a hysterical condition, said Ms Gallagher, and his mother took him for treatment at hospital.

Ingram was arrested on Friday, December 7. A search of his home on Regent Street, Bradgate, Rotherham, revealed 274 grams of cocaine, worth up to £21,925, 1.25 kilos of cannabis, valued at £12,523, 45 ecstasy tablets and six grams of ketamine.

The firearm, and four live rounds, were also recovered, along with £3,500 in cash and a counting machine.

In a statement, Ingram’s victim said: “I genuinely thought I was going to die in the car. What if the gun had gone off by mistake?”

“He says he is now constantly on edge and when he closes his eyes he can see a gun pointing at him," said Ms Gallagher.

She said Ingram was “enforcing debts with a loaded pistol,” adding: “This is not a young lad who runs drugs for someone else.”

Dermot Hughes, mitigating, said Ingram, with no previous convictions, “was answerable to someone who got him to do the dirty work at the hot end of the operation.

“Mr Ingram doesn’t feel able to provide any information about “Brad.” He was subservient. He was the one storing the drugs and likely to be caught.

“He will have deprived himself of important formative years as a young adult and his role as a father.”

Ingram, 22, pleaded guilty to possession of the firearm and ammunition, possessing an offensive weapon in public place, kidnap, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, possessesion of cocaine, cannabis and ketamine with intent to supply, and possession of MDMA.

Sentencing him to nine years, Judge Roger Thomas QC told Ingram: “Quite how it is you have got yourself into such serious crime I am not quite sure.”