A PAIR who “rolled over” a prostitute’s client for £5,000 have been jailed for more than seven and a half years.

Taylor Edwards and Yunis Sharif, both 24, blackmailed the man, 60s, after learning he bought and smoked crack cocaine with the sex worker.

They were both present on April 26, when Sharif smashed his way into the man’s Swindon’s home and demanded cash.

Prosecutor Nicholas Fridd said the victim had spent his last cash earlier that evening on crack cocaine. He offered them vinyl records from his collection and to withdraw £100 from a cash machine. The man was told: “Don’t insult me.” Edwards hunted around upstairs for a safe. Watches and a sword were taken in the raid.

The pair demanded he pay out £5,000. They wanted £2,000 that month, the same sum the month after and a final £1,000 the month after that. The sum demanded matched that left to the blackmail victim by his late mother – a detail he had mentioned to the sex worker.

They warned their victim not to go to the police, telling him: “Don’t call the police, they can’t do anything to us.” 

Edwards and Sharif were spotted on CCTV later that evening outside Nando’s at the Orbital shopping centre in North Swindon. The former moved stolen watches from Sharif’s Vauxhall Corsa to his girlfriend’s Mini.

Three days later Edwards used another’s mobile phone to make a ransom call. The blackmailer was told by his victim he’d left £2,000 in a grit bin by the Holiday Inn at Junction 16 of the M4.

The cash – bundled into a Puma sports bag – had been stashed in the bin by detectives working the case after the victim went to police on the night his accusers raided his home.

Later that afternoon police officers watched as Edwards arrived driving his girlfriend’s cream-coloured Mini. A 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named as he is under 18, got out of the car and took the bag out the grit bin.

Both Edwards and the boy were arrested at the scene. Sharif was arrested several weeks later.

Edwards denied charges of blackmail and robbery. At his trial he claimed to have been told the blackmail victim was a paedophile who kept indecent images of children at his home and who had tried to pay him off. The jury found him guilty of blackmail but could not reach a verdict on the robbery charge.

Sharif admitted both blackmail and robbery.

Appearing before Swindon Crown Court this morning for sentence, the smartly-dressed pair spoke only to confirm their names.

Chris Smyth, for Edwards, said the offence was completely out of character for his client, who was hard working and even now planned to use his time in prison constructively to complete educational and vocational courses.

Emma Handslip, for Sharif, said the young man was a talented footballer who had played for the Somalia under-21 side. “He’s gone from that, representing his country, to now being in court in front of a judge for something that’s completely out of character.”

Judge Jason Taylor QC jailed Edwards for three years and four months and Sharif for four years and three months.

He said: “As one of your references states, Mr Edwards, blackmail is an offence of intimidation and greed and as far as this court is concerned an ugly one which necessitates a clear message.”

The judge described Edwards as a clever man with a cruel streak. He tore into claims the men’s blackmail victim was in possession of indecent images of children.

“It would be laughable had the smear campaign not been so devastating to your victim. Your selfish self-interest overrode your sense of decency and you were quite happy, to use the colloquial expression, to throw him to the dogs,” he said.