A BLACKMAILER who threatened to falsely accuse a man of being a paedophile to extort just £40 has been jailed for almost five years.

Harry Bampton also told a 15-year-old boy he would kidnap his mother, tie her up and set her on fire in an effort to get £800 from him. 

Prosecutors said Bampton, 25, had a 'modus operandi' where he inflicted an 'elaborate ruse' on young and vulnerable strangers.

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Bampton generally pretended to know people around Maidenhead in Berkshire. He then falsely informed them they owed a drug debt and started to threaten them to extract money.

Toby Manhire, prosecuting, said Bampton approached his first victim, a 19-year-old man, on November 3 last year and accused him of having picked up drugs that had been left behind in a  park, demanding £500.

“This was a falsehood, a deceitful effort to extort”, Mr Manhire said. “The defendant, playing the role of a merciful individual, said he would accept some £200.”

Bampton was arrested by police and bailed over this incident, but went on to carry out further offences, approaching a second victim on March 21 this year.

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The defendant told the second victim he owed £60 and told him to call his parents so he could settle the debt.

He 'made reference to having previously inflicted violence and been shot at' in an effort to threaten his victim, Mr Manhire said.

The third victim, a 22-year-old man, was at a McDonald’s with his girlfriend on April 9 when he was approached by Bampton, who again said he owed a drug debt and demanded money.

They exchanged numbers after Bampton pretended to accept he had the wrong person, which led to a threatening call later that evening, the court heard.

“In the course of the telephone call, the defendant threatened him, said he knew where he lived and also referred to the victim as a paedophile as part of that blackmail effort”, Mr Manhire said.

On the same day, Bampton approached a 15-year-old boy at the same McDonalds. 

He accused the boy of having picked up drugs which had been left at a local leisure centre and demanded he refund him £800 at a rate of £30 a month until the fake debt was settled.

“He said if the debt were not paid, he would find his parents, take his mother, tie her up and burn her and shoot the victim’s father in the ankles”, the prosecutor explained.

The boy was so afraid he had not returned to the leisure centre since the incident, the court heard. Bampton also robbed another man of £40 after marching him to a cashpoint.

Mr Manhire said Bampton carried out a 'deliberate course of conduct, seeking to extort funds from innocent bystanders by that elaborate ruse'.

Bampton, who appeared at Reading Crown Court by video link from HMP Bullingdon, admitted three counts of robbery and two counts of blackmail.

John Waller, defending, said father-of-one Bampton began 'coming off the rails' when he discovered, at 16, the person he thought was his biological father was not and his biological father had left and never been seen again.

He had a previous conviction for stalking a previous girlfriend and for fare evasion and had carried out the offences in an effort to raise money for a drug debt which he himself owed, Mr Waller said.

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Judge Sarah Campbell, sentencing, said: “These were particularly nasty offences which reveal the true nature of your character. Some of the particularly nasty nature of the threats were completely unnecessary.”

At a hearing on Friday, the judge jailed Bampton, of Hill Farm Road, Taplow, for 58 months.