A debt collector who was working on behalf of a drugs supplier, used CS gas to try and enforce repayment. Taurean Harte and an accomplice turned up at a man's Middlesbrough home ready to attack him, on April 26, over the non-payment of £14,000.

The victim was a dealer who had run up the debt with his supplier. Harte, 29, threatened to kick the door down if the man didn't open up.

Joe Hedworth, prosecuting, told York Crown Court that when the man opened his door, Harte punched him. Mr Hedworth said that the second man attacked the victim with a wooden pole.

Harte then sprayed his victim with CS gas. The man suffered a minor head injury in the ambush, and his dad called in the police.

The court heard that Harte was outside his home on Brompton Street, in central Middlesbrough, when the

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