Gangster Abdul Raman Habib jailed over Neil Coates kidnapping

Abdul Raman Habib, 31, is the fourth man to be jailed over the abduction of Neil Coates and the plot to extort cash from his father, Peter Parkin-Coates.

He played the role of “messenger” as the gang of four took Mr Coates from his home in York to Manchester and held him there while for four days Mr Coates’ father got phone calls threatening that his son would be harmed unless he left the £12,000 at a service station on the M62.

Mr Coates was freed by armed police on April 3, 2009, in Manchester. The Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, said Habib played an “important role” in the collection of what was “in all probability an illegal debt”. He jailed Habib, of no fixed address, for two years and nine months. Habib pleaded guilty to conspiracy to blackmail.

Mastermind Hesan Zaboli, 26, of Stockport, Cheshire, is already serving six years, and Paul Richards, 31, and Kevin Ingram, 33, both of Manchester, are serving three and a half years each. Zaboli was convicted of conspiracy to blackmail by a jury after denying the charge; the other two admitted it.

The court heard both Richards and Ingram have convictions for major violence.

Tony Kelbrick told York Crown Court Zaboli made telephone calls to Habib who then phoned Ingram and Richards. The gang made four visits to Neil Coates’s Tang Hall home in York, but Habib was only present on the fourth occasion, which was when the gang took Mr Coates back with them to Manchester.

“His role (Habib’s) in the blackmail of Mr Parkin-Coates would appear to be that of a conduit for messages and as an instrument of others,” the barrister said. Habib had not threatened anyone.

For him, Sara Dodd said he had gone to York under the impression he would be bringing a car back. But he accepted that he sat alongside Mr Coates in the back seat as the son was taken to Manchester.

She quoted Mr Coates’s statement in which he described Habib as reassuring him he would not be harmed.