A TEENAGE blackmailer who created deadly home-made explosives has begun a seven-year jail sentence.

Shoban Ahmed Butt, 18, threw petrol bombs at a house as part of a feud in which he demanded £30,000.

Officers swooped when he picked up the cash. When they raided his home they found a variety of explosives and a notorious `cookbook' detailing how to make deadly devices.

He pleaded guilty at Manchester Crown Court to blackmail, making explosives, causing an explosion, committing an act with intent to cause an explosion and possessing a prohibited weapon.

Last Christmas the victim called police after two petrol bombs were thrown on to the driveway of his Higher Broughton home.

On January 3, he received a handwritten letter warning him that if he did not hand over £30,000, further damage would be caused to his property.

Four days later, two more petrol bombs were thrown at the house.

They exploded on the driveway and damaged his car.

As part of a wide-ranging operation involving the Serious Crime Division, contact was made with the blackmailer and a meeting to hand over the cash was arranged.

The money was put in a bag and left in the victim's vehicle at a car park.

Butt, of Kings Road, Prestwich, arrived picked up the bag, was followed by armed officers and then arrested. Searches at his home found a sheet of paper that had the indent of the blackmail note on it. They also found his fingerprints on a copy of the notorious The Anarchist Cookbook, explosive chemicals and fuses.

Examinations of his mobile phone and laptop revealed other recipes for explosives.

Det Chief Insp Dominic Scally, from the Serious Crime Division, said that the arson attacks could have had `tragic consequences'.

He said: "We can only begin to guess what his intentions were, but thankfully we were able to stop him before his attacks proved deadly. The forensic case against Butt was very strong and this gave us irrefutable evidence.

"We believe the motive for his blackmail plot came from a dispute stretching back more than a decade and had escalated to the point where the victim seriously feared for his life.

"It was a calculated, not to mention dangerous, plot and I am delighted that Butt is now behind bars."