An advertising salesman who tried to blackmail his former employer has received a suspended jail term.

Sean Stinchcombe demanded £30,000 or threatened that he would release damaging information about Bristol based British Publishers Ltd, Bristol Crown Court heard yesterday.

The court heard the firm suspected he was behind the threat and called in police.

Stinchcombe, 32, of Cadbury Heath, pleaded guilty to blackmail.

Judge Julian Lambert told him the threat of unwarranted demands on businesses had to be deterred.

He handed Stinchcombe a one year prison sentence, suspended for two years, ordered him to be supervised for a year and told him to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work.

Julian Howells, prosecution, said Stinchcombe had set up Captivation Media before being employed by British Publishers Ltd, which published magazines abroad.

He told the court that the firm received a letter of complaint from Asian Development Bank, in which the bank refuted publicity suggesting it was in a "strategic business partnership" with the publisher, as well as Captivation Media.

Mr Howells said: "The publisher suspected the defendant was responsible and dismissed him."

The court heard the publisher then received an email, purporting to have sensitive information about it, from a mystery sender claiming to be "holding a couple of cards".

Although the company did not respond, it then received a typed, three-page letter from a mystery sender saying they had bought "extremely valuable" information, which they wanted to sell, and it would cost £30,000.

Mr Howells said assertions were made about destroying the business, and the firm called the police.

When arrested, Stinchcombe was heard telling his girlfriend he had done some- thing he should not have done, the court heard.

Stinchcombe conceded he was involved in a "dodgy" document suggesting the publisher was in a strategic partnership with the bank, in a bid to gain business.

He told police he had written the offensive email, in a moment of madness, from his laptop because he was "skint" and had suffered a messy divorce.

He also admitted writing the offensive letter, saying he had hoped to spend any money he got on his family.

Robin Shellard, defending, said his client was extremely remorseful.

He said his client had been brought into the firm to generate advertising revenue for a Russian publication projected to have a 20,000 circulation, which was ultimately not distributed.

It was Stinchcombe's case that, leaving clients short-changed, he resigned from the publisher.

Mr Shellard said: "Blackmail goes from crude and violent to complicated and well thought out.

"This was crude and ill thought out. He eventually has done the right thing."