A MAN who masterminded a £6 million blackmail campaign against American Express was finally trapped in an undercover FBI sting.

Kulwant Singh resorted to attempted extortion after he failed to sue the international banking company for £14 million, the Old Bailey in London heard yesterday.

The 30-year-old Cambridge graduate, of Parkwood Drive, Over Hulton, had taken American Express to court after it refused to pay out when he claimed thieves had stolen £17,000 worth of travellers cheques, cash and his passport during a business trip to New Delhi in 2001.

He not only lost his civil claim but was ordered to pay the company's £28,000 legal costs as well.

Bent on revenge, Singh headed back to India in October 2002 where he visited American Express's New Delhi offices and secretly filmed staff, intending to use the footage to claim workers were involved in terrorism and corruption.

Over the next few weeks Singh, using the alias Gunna Auraura, bombarded the company's New York headquarters demanding to speak to the chief executive.

Eventually he got through to head of security David Enders and warned him he had evidence that staff at the banking group's New Delhi office were involved in serious criminal activities.

Martyn Bowyer, prosecuting, said: "Mr Enders took the defendant seriously, and one can understand why given the prevailing climate at the time in the immediate aftermath of September 11."

Mr Enders agreed to meet him in New Jersey where Singh warned him he had six video tapes proving his claims.

He added that he was one of a group of five people and in exchange for the tapes he wanted $10 million dollars, the equivalent of £6 million, or the tapes would be handed to the TV news network CNN or another news agency.

When the meeting finished, Mr Enders jotted down the registration number of the car Singh drove off in.

Singh, a former high-flying management consultant, was identified because he had hired the car using his own name and address, giving an address in New Jersey where his step-father lived.

American Express informed the FBI and an agent, who used the alias Mike Shannon, took up negotiations with Singh, eventually agreeing to accept $1 million dollars, £600,000, for copies of still photographs from the videos.

A swap in London was arranged with Singh.

London police and the FBI watched the handover and arrested Singh at the underground station.

Mark Miliken-Smith, defending, said Singh, who pleaded guilty to the charges, began suffering from mental illness in the wake of a failed internet venture he set up in 2001.

Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith accepted Singh suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and sent him to the psychiatric unit at the Royal Bolton Hospital under Section 37 of the Mental Health Act 1983.