Asian kidnap gang jailed for 28 years in Britain

BBC News:

Four people who kidnapped an 11-year-old boy and held him to ransom for £40,000 have been jailed for between three-and-a-half and 12 years.

The boy was taken from a street in Southall, west London, last March.

Gurnham Dhanoa, 22, Ravideep Babu, 23, Amarjit Dhariwar, 30, and Ayisha Choudhry, 20, were sentenced at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court.

The four, all from Southall, were convicted of conspiracy to kidnap, false imprisonment and blackmail.

The boy had been walking home from school when one of the gang - an illegal immigrant hoping to buy a Ferrari with the ransom money - bundled him into the back of a car.

The child was then driven to a room strewn with rotting rubbish and warned he could be killed.

The court heard that as the boy's 26-hour ordeal unfolded his family was bombarded with "chilling" phone calls demanding money for his safe return.

At one stage gang leader Babu even shoved a phone into the child's face so he could tearfully plead: "Dad, can you hurry up with the money, please."

He was eventually freed after one of the other kidnappers was arrested by armed police and revealed where the boy was being held.

Although physically unharmed, he now suffers from panic attacks and nightmares.

His schooling has also been affected and, along with several other members of his family, he is still undergoing counselling.

Passing sentence, Judge Richard Matheson QC told the gang: "It was an extremely serious offence and caused enormous distress to the family of the victim."

Sentencing Babu to 12 years, the judge said: "You are, in my opinion, quite dangerous, always ready to resort to threats. And there have been many."

He added he would also be recommending the illegal immigrant be deported upon his release.

Dhanoa another illegal immigrant, got six years, and Dhariwar was jailed for seven years.

Choudhry, who admitted the charges, wept as she was jailed for three-and-a-half years.

After the case, Det Ch Supt Sharon Kerr, said: "Kidnap is an extremely serious offence and each case is a potential murder.

"The operation to free the hostage is a race against the clock to prevent that murder from taking place."