A BOLTON man who is in jail for blackmailing the owners of a Chinese takeaway has had his sentence lengthened for threatening a couple.

Rafike Riaz was jailed for two-and-a-half years last October — and on Monday the same judge gave him another 16 months to run consecutively.

"You are a bully and you are a thug and you need to sort you life out," Judge Clement Goldstone QC, the Recorder of Liverpool, told powerfully built Riaz.

He was on bail for the earlier offence — in which he repeatedly threatened the owners of a Leigh takeaway — when he employed similar tactics at the home of a couple, also in Leigh.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that 44-year-old Riaz, a doorman, of Canada Street, Halliwell, turned up at the home of Paul Leicester and Gemma Wondersley in August last year.

Charlotte Kenny, prosecuting, explained that Mr Leicester and Riaz's girlfriend Sarah Foster were on nodding terms, and in July she had approached him for cannabis and to borrow £10 but he refused both requests.

On August 9 Riaz arrived at the couple's home in Tinkersfield, Leigh, and accused Mr Leicester of offering "my missus" a joint, which he denied.

"Riaz challenged him to a fight and got more and more agitated. Miss Wondersley got in between them and the defendant swung his left hand over her and struck Mr Leicester on the right side of the face.

"It was more a slap than a punch," said Miss Kenny.

Miss Foster, who was with him at the time, took hold of him and tried to get him to leave, but he was uttering threats before he went.

The next day Riaz returned and told Miss Wondersley that his girlfriend had "told him everything" and demanded "a grand otherwise he's dead."

When she told him they did not have that sum, he grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her towards the grass verge, then pointed out a parked car and told her they had to put the money in it.

He warned her, "Make sure he's got a grand. I'll kill him and I know guys at the Power Gym."

Miss Kenny said Miss Wondersley was frightened of him and felt very intimidated. She described him as "extremely menacing."

Mr Leicester later said in a statement that he too had been afraid of Riaz and they have since moved home.

When arrested and interviewed Riaz denied the allegations and claimed that Mr Leicester had been "mithering" his girlfriend and he just told him to stop.

Riaz pleaded guilty to common assault and blackmail. The judge made an indefinite restraining order to keep him away from his victims.

Carmel Wilde, defending, said after his release he hopes to re-build his life.