BLACKMAILERS who threatened to burn down a family's home have been jailed for 18 months.

A petrol can was left on the drive of Stephen White's Westhoughton home after a visit from Ingus Odzins and Janis Storhs to reinforce demands for money, Bolton Crown Court heard.

Odzins and Storhs pleaded guilty to blackmail on the day of their trial in July, claiming they had been working for Kearsley businessman David Jackson, who was in dispute with Mr White over business dealings which had gone sour.

Mr Jackson, 54, of Sandhole Road, Kearsley, stood trial for blackmail but was cleared by a jury.

At Bolton Crown Court on yesterday Thursday Odzins, aged 32, of Stillwater Drive, Manchester and Storhs, aged 40, of Larch Gardens, Manchester, were told by Judge Peter Davies that their actions had been "a very frightening way of extracting money."

Colin Buckle, prosecuting, told the court how Mr White's adult son, Ross White, was at his father's Hindley Road home on the afternoon of January 30 when he was visited by Latvian-born pair Odzins and Storhs.

He added that Ross White knew Storhs as his father had been engaged in business with him and had paid a substantial amount of money.

But he added that when the payments stopped in 2014 Stephen White received threats that his house would be burnt down or his wife kidnapped.

On January 30, Odzins and Storhs turned up at the house and Storhs repeated the threats to Ross White.

They left and a short time later two other men drove up to the property in a Salford Van Hire vehicle and walked up the drive with a plastic bag.

"They placed it on the driveway and revealed it contained a green petrol can," said Mr Buckle.

Police were called and the pair were arrested.

The court heard Storhs, a father of one, had previously received a suspended prison sentence for stealing clothing from an Oxfam charity collection bin and that Odzins has a conviction for shoplifting.

Robert Kearney, defending both men, stressed that the blackmail offence was short lived, the threats were not carried out and there is no evidence that there was petrol in the can.