A Bristol drug addict has told a jury how a drug gang tortured debtors who failed to pay up on time.

One man had a lit cigarette put into his ear and his hands forced into a toaster after falling behind on his "payment plan", while another was knocked out by a kick to the head from former Olympic judo expert James Waithe, who was the gang's enforcer, Bristol Crown Court was told.

Grant Richmond said yesterday that he started running drugs and guns for the gang after a life of petty crime to fund his heroin addiction.

The 29-year-old said he had stolen about 800 cars since the age of nine, started using heroin when he was 12 and committed a plethora of crimes to fund his habit – 95 per cent of which he had not been prosecuted for.

He said when he fell in with a man called Craig Rodel he worked as a drugs and gun courier for him, and met his associates including Waithe, who acted as Rodel's debt collector.

Richmond told the court: "I knew Waithe was an expert in judo and a bit of a fitness fanatic. He has got a reputation for violence. Generally people who bought cocaine paid up promptly. If not they would get hurt.

"We would sit down and work out a payment plan; miss a week and you got your leg broke."

Richmond said he witnessed Waithe knock out a drug debtor called Mike, from Pensford, with a kick to the face. The man paid up afterwards.

He also recalled how a drug debtor called Andy, from Hartcliffe, was tied to a chair and beaten before Waithe forced his hands into a toaster and Rodel placed a lit cigarette into his ear. He also paid up afterwards.

Richmond told the court he was there when Waithe armed himself with a handgun on another enforcement trip, and he also saw him with two sawn-off shotguns.

Richmond said Rodel, who was ex-Royal Navy, had knowledge of firearms while another man, Robert Brooks, had contacts who supplied him with cocaine from Liverpool, and they pooled resources.

Waithe, aged 47, denies conspiracy to supply cocaine as well as possession of firearms with intent to endanger life, and simple possession of firearms and explosives.

Robert Brooks, 63, of no fixed address, has pleaded guilty to the drugs conspiracy but denies the firearms charges.

Richmond, of Long Cross, Lawrence Weston, Rodel, 46, of Wexford Road, Knowle West, and Luke Downes, 22, of Pevensey Walk, Knowle West, have all pleaded guilty to being involved in the conspiracy.

The jury has already heard that police stumbled on a cocaine factory producing drugs on an "industrial scale" when they were called to investigate a burglary at Highridgeand found a 10-tonne hydraulic press, white powder and cutting agents as well as an "arsenal" of weapons.

The case continues on Monday.