A DRUG dealer laid a plastic sheet to stop blood staining the carpet before savagely torturing one of his associates for two hours using a knife, hammer and hockey stick.

After the brutal attack, Faisal Shaheen, 27, of Mentmore Close, High Wycombe, put battered and bleeding 21-year-old dealer Benjamin Hargreaves in a taxi back to his girlfriend's house.

Shaheen, who was high on crack cocaine, was helped in the attack by Ricky Howell, 24, who held down Mr Hargreaves as Shaheen stabbed him three times in the legs and beat him in the face with the hammer and hockey stick.

It was revealed Howell has been dating Mr Hargreaves's sister, Coleen, for two years and has been able to partly rebuild his relationship with the victim.

After their arrest the two made threatening phone calls from prison to Mr Hargreaves's mother saying a hit man would be sent to her home unless all the charges were dropped, Aylesbury Crown Court heard on Tuesday.

Kim Preston, prosecuting, told the court that Mr Hargreaves, of Highwood Avenue, had been working for Shaheen for "some months" but on the night of the attack had told his boss he wanted out.

She said: "Benjamin Hargreaves told him Shaheen he wanted to get his life together but he had an outstanding debt of £400 for drugs."

On April 29, this year Shaheen called Mr Hargreaves and invited him to a flat in Chiltern Avenue, High Wycombe, where Howell was staying with his uncle. The court heard that the three men spent an hour chatting before the attack began.

At around half past midnight Shaheen turned up the stereo, laid down a large plastic sheet to cover the carpet and began torturing Mr Hargreaves.

Judge Christopher Tyrer said: "This was a sustained and savage beating. It is clear the victim suffered significantly."

Shaheen was sentenced to seven years in jail for GBH with intent and Howell was given three-and-a-half years for his part in the frenzied attack.

They were also sentenced to a year each for attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Both men were arrested and held in custody from May 1 where they made desperate phone calls trying to get the charges dropped.

Mrs Preston said: "A call was made to Mr Hargreaves's mother telling her they would send a gunman for them."

Other calls were made to Mr Hargreaves's brother, Jason, pleading with him to arrange a phone call to the victim and offering him £5,000.

Jonathan Drury, representing Shaheen, said his client had been drug-free in prison. He said: "The man that appears before the court is a different man to that of April 29."

Catherine Milsom, for Howell, said: "His guilty plea goes to show his participation. But in holding down one hand he was following someone's orders."