TWO men from Ayr have been jailed for extortion calls in which they threatened a businessman.

Scott Colville and David McCallum told their victim his wife would be raped and his children abducted if he did not pay them £20,000.

A call was made to a funeral director telling them to collect a child's body from the victim's family home as part of the intimidation campaign.

Another man also received threatening calls saying he would have to pay £5,000 or he and his family would be assaulted.

Colville, 43, of Churchill Towers, and 39-year-old McCallum, of Inkerman Court, were sentenced this week after being convicted by a jury following a trial at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.

On various occasions between July 3-8, 2019, in Dunfermline and elsewhere, with the intention of menacing a man and extorting £20,000 from him, they made phone calls threatening him that unless he paid that amount they would abduct his children, assault him and his family members, and rape his wife.

They obtained photographs of his children and contacted a funeral director to seek to falsely arrange the collection of a child’s body from the family’s home.

On July 7 and 8, 2019, in Dunfermline and elsewhere, they attempted to extort £5,000 from another man by making phone calls to him threatening to assault him and family members.

The first man who was targeted runs a roofing business in Dunfermline.

He told the court he had no idea who was on the line when he started receiving the threatening calls.

His wife became upset as she gave her evidence at the trial, saying she had heard the callers making the threats of rape and abducting their children.

McCallum was jailed for three years, while Colville received a prison term of two years and nine months.