A FATHER who kidnapped his children from their mother and held them for almost a year after fleeing to Bangladesh has been jailed for two-and-a-half-years.

Mohammed Miah, 42, told wife Husna Khanom Parvin, 35, he was taking their four children to Newcastle Airport, on April 26 last year, so they could say goodbye to their grandmother, who was returning to Bangladesh.

But Newcastle Crown Court heard how Miah, of Salmon Street, South Shields, hired a mini bus to take the youngsters, then aged between four and 14, to Heathrow and flew to his home country without their mother.

The children, a boy and three girls, then spent 11 months in a strange country, away from their mother.

But after a High Court order was issued to Miah, who returned to the Midlands in January this year, he returned Nozrul, now 15, Neelofa, now 13, Hasina, now 11, and Nasim, now six.

The couple moved to Britain in June 1987, but by 1995 their marriage was described as unhappy.

Christopher Knox, prosecuting, told the court: "The children were bemused, they clearly had not been expecting this.

"Their time there was not entirely happy, no doubt due to the conditions they were forced to live in.

"They clearly missed their mother and were unhappy in the circumstances they were uprooted.

"Their mother at no stage consented to their removal."

The court heard how Miah planned the abduction and arranged with his family to help look after the children once in India.

A contempt of court order preventing publication of the children's identities was lifted by Judge Guy Whitburn yesterday.

He said: "The message has to be made clear that offences of this nature attract a custodial sentence and a substantial one."

At an earlier hearing, Miah pleaded guilty to four charges of abducting a child.