A BLACKMAILER tried to extort money from a York pub landlord by holding him to ransom over his double love life.

But the victim turned the tables, luring James Andrew Mollan into a police trap that has now seen him jailed.

Mollan, 26, persuaded the family man to hand over a bunch of banknotes by repeatedly threatening to send a potentially embarrassing mobile phone video to his victim’s partner, said Nick Worsley, prosecuting.

“Don’t worry man, you can trust me,” the blackmailer told the landlord as he took the money.

But the landlord had alerted police, who watched the whole exchange from a hiding place and pounced as Mollan prepared to walk off with the cash in his back pocket.

Today, Mollan, 26, of Swale Avenue, Dringhouses, York, is starting six months in jail without the cash after pleading guilty to blackmail. Mr Worsley said the landlord was now repairing his relationship with his long-term partner after she learned about the fling he had with another woman.

“There must be a custodial sentence,” said Judge Shaun Spencer QC. Mr Worsley said the landlord had been in a long-term relationship, but Mollan learned he had been having an affair for about a week with another woman.

On May 9, 2009, Mollan saw the couple drinking together in a beer garden and he later phoned the landlord and demanded £200 in cash.

He claimed he was acting on behalf of a third man who had a mobile phone video of the two kissing and “behaving in an improper way”.

He also sent a series of text messages threatening the “third party” would send the video to the landlord’s partner.

“Send the video, I don’t care,” the landlord texted Mollan back. As Mollan continued to text him, demanding money by 7pm that day, the landlord decided enough was enough and showed the text messages to police.

Officers were waiting when, with £150 from the pub’s till, he went to a meeting arranged by the blackmailer.

For Mollan, James Boumphrey said he had only had the money for a matter of minutes and the blackmail threats had been made over a period of less than 24 hours.

Mollan told police after his arrest he had no money and was in the habit of borrowing from his friends and parents.