A SPURNED boyfriend who drove more than 200 miles to stalk his former lover enlisted the help of a Burnley man he met in a snooker hall for a botched kidnapping, a court heard.

Myra Sultan had fled to East Lancashire from the Cardiff area to escape the attentions of her ‘controlling’ former partner Zareef Zadary, Burnley Crown Court was told.

But he tried to fit a tracker to her aunt’s car and hired private detectives to trace Miss Sultan to a house in Nelson, according to prosecutors.

Once in the area, after hiring a Jaguar car to travel up north, he met Ashan Ali at a snooker hall in Burnley and persuaded him to join him.

They planned to snatch the young woman from a property in Vaughan Street and take her to a hotel.

Jacob Dyer, prosecuting, said police arrived on the scene just as Zardary and Ali tried to talk their way into the house, where Miss Sultan was staying with two brothers, Bilal and Afzar Ahmed.

Ali tried to run off, ditching a lock-knife and six small bags of heroin as he fled, but police officers caught up with him and arrested him nearby.

Zardary, 24, of Grosvenor House, Moorland Road, Cardiff, was convicted of attempted kidnapping and stalking after a trial.

Ali, 19, of Abel Street, Burnley, admitted to attempted kidnap and possession of the knife and heroin.

Judge Ian Lemming QC jailed Zardary for 20 months and gave Ali 16 months youth custody. He is already serving a four-year term for two robberies. Zardary was also given an indefinite restraining order, preventing contact with Miss Sultan and four named family members.

Mr Dyer said Miss Sultan was also facing pressure at home to enter into an arranged marriage in Pakistan.

Her aunt Tafsir Umnisa attempted to help her out, eventually assisting with a move out of the Cardiff area to Lancashire.

But Zardary continually harassed her and a tracker bearing his fingerprint was even found attached to the underside of a car.

Arrested and interviewed by police after the Nelson incident, Zardary claimed he had been visiting Lancashire to check out a car he wanted to buy.

Ali had denied ever meeting Zardary or accompanying him to Vaughan Street.