AN “INEPT” trio bundled a man into a car and threatened to cut his arteries to leave him to bleed to death.

Adam Maxwell, Adam Powney and Regan White were found guilty of kidnapping Adam Scoble in Brighton.

Powney, 33, struck the victim with a brick, while Maxwell, 20, and White, 18, “set upon” him to get him into an Audi.

Mr Scoble, 28, was left in fear and claimed he was threatened with knives and menacingly with a bottle of Lucozade, which he feared could be a corrosive substance.

He suffered minor injuries during the incident as he was driven by the three men for 30 minutes.

Mr Scoble said: “This was the most horrific experience of my life.”

After a trial the trio were found guilty of kidnap and wounding, but were cleared of possessing any knives.

At Hove Crown Court Her Honour Judge Anne Arnold jailed Powney for five years, Maxwell for seven years and nine months, and White for three years and nine months in a young offenders institution.

Their crime was described as “inept” and “incompetent” by their defence barristers, as they abducted Mr Scoble in broad daylight in front of CCTV cameras.

They stopped outside the home of one of the men, and then eventually dropped Mr Scoble off at his mother’s home during the incident on January 26 last year.

Julian Winship, prosecuting, said the three men had “targeted” Mr Scoble, who had a “real sense of fear”.

But he said the drugs motive and connection to the so-called “Scouse Greg” line that Maxwell was a dealer for could not be proved.

Maxwell admitted being concerned in the supply of class A drugs, which increased his sentence.

Richard Barton, defending Maxwell, said: “There was a significant degree of planning but all the three defendants were inept rather than professional. The kidnapping took place in broad daylight in front of CCTV cameras.

“They were driving him around, at one time stopping at their own home, and dropped him off at his mother’s address.

“This has ineptitude written all over it.”

Judge Anne Arnold said there was a “joint enterprise” between the three men and said: “I can sensibly infer that threats were made with regard to cutting his (Mr Scoble’s) arteries and leaving him to bleed to death.

“Adam Scoble was bundled into the back of an Audi and driven around in a manner that he said frightened him.

“Threats were made, not only about cutting his arteries, but by showing him a bottle of Lucozade, which transpired was nothing but a bottle of the energy drink, but he feared it contained some sort of corrosive substance.”

White, of Firle Road, Moulsecoomb, Maxwell, of no fixed address but formerly of Birkenhead, and Powney, of Curlender Close, Birkenhead, will all now be behind bars.