Miles Blakeney and Luke Hazell, both 37, left the victim with life-changing injuries following a violent abduction
12:06, 24 Jan 2026Updated 12:08, 24 Jan 2026
Miles Blakeney and Luke Hazell, both 37, have been convicted. While neither Blakeney or Hazell physically kidnapped the victim, Blakeney was at the flat when he arrived, and Hazell went to the flat after the victim tried to escape and personally inflicted the injuries on him(Image: WMP)
Two Birmingham cousins have been convicted for their part in torturing a man in a Birmingham flat as part of a £3million kidnapping plot.
The victim was left with life-changing injuries after he was tied up, and scalded with boiling water as he was held captive in an Edgbaston flat for days.
He was eventually dumped naked on Perrott Road in Winson Green, where a member of the public raised the alarm.
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West Midlands Police’s Major Crime Unit launched an investigation leading to the arrest and conviction of cousins Miles Blakeney and Luke Hazell, both 37.
While neither Blakeney or Hazell physically kidnapped the victim, Blakeney was at the flat when he arrived, and Hazell went to the flat after the victim tried to escape and personally inflicted the injuries on him.
The victim’s horrific ordeal began on around 8pm on 21 January 2023, when a Land Rover pulled on to Anglesey Street, Lozells.
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A group of men wearing balaclavas jumped out and chased the victim, who is in his 20s, before bundling him into the car, removing his coat and putting a cover over his head.
The Range Rover was driven to a flat around two miles away in Edgbaston.
A relative of the victim phoned police just after 8.10pm to report the kidnap, before the victim himself phoned another relative from a withheld number.
He sounded distressed as he revealed: “They have kidnapped me, they have kidnapped me. They want money. They want three mill (£3m).”
In the early hours of the following day, a man guarding the victim fell asleep and he tried and failed to escape, hitting his captor with a vodka bottle.
Over the following days, the victim was tied up and had boiling water poured over him.
He was dumped in the street, naked and badly injured, just before 10pm on 26 January.
A detailed investigation by our Major Crime Unit tracked mobile phone data, movements of vehicles, and used DNA techniques to identify Hazell, who arranged the kidnap, and Blakeney, who was in charge of the flat.
It also revealed how the pair had discussed previous attempts to kidnap the victim, with a message from Blakeney to Hazell saying: “Did you go there?” and Hazell replying: “They waited for the geezer, will try again tomorrow.”
Hazell, of Dovedale Road, Perry Common and Blakeney, of Ashley Close, Edgbaston, were convicted of conspiracy to kidnap, false imprisonment, blackmail, and wounding with intent on Friday (Jan 23).
Det Insp Francis Nock, of our Major Crime Unit, said: “This was an horrific ordeal for the victim, who was left with life-changing injuries after a prolonged period of being held against his will and effectively tortured.
“The gang was willing to use extreme violence, and their victim will live with that for the rest of his life.
“While neither Blakeney or Hazell physically kidnapped the victim, Blakeney was at the flat when he arrived, and Hazell went to the flat after the victim tried to escape and personally inflicted the injuries on him.
“A huge amount of work went into identifying the kidnappers and piecing together their movements, through painstaking trawls of mobile phone data, vehicle movements, and other witness evidence has secured these convictions.”
They will be sentenced in March.