A Feltham criminal-for-hire has been jailed for more than seven years today for helping a gang kidnap a man they believed owed a £20,000 drug debt.
Raymond Abraham, of Hatton Road, acted as the getaway driver and jailer when he and four others held Inderjeet Sahans hostage for 22 hours, on August 3, 2006.
At Southwark Crown Court Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith sentenced Abraham to a total of seven years and three months in prison for a crime he believed the 28-year-old would have only received a couple of hundred pounds for.
Judge Loraine-Smith said: “It is apparent from how the others spoke about you that you that they saw you as someone who was to be ordered about.”
Mr Sahans was bundled into a van in Quaker Lane, Southall, by the kidnappers and driven across London where they punched, kicked, cut him and bound his hands and feet.
Judge Loraine-Smith said despite being “an organised not a spontaneous venture” the gang abducted the wrong man and still persisted in trying to get £20,000 in ransom money.
Mr Sahans’ friend, Naveen Dutt, called police after being told by the kidnappers they would kill their hostage if he did not hand the money over.
As part of a covert operation, in which “chilling” demand calls were recorded by officers, police ensured Mr Sahans was safely released and targeted and arrested three gang members before catching the remaining two.
Judge Loraine-Smith explained Mr Sahans was so scared for his and his family’s safety that he tried to visit his captors while they were in custody to try and take instruction on what they wanted him to do now they were behind bars.
He said: “I was satisfied that Sahans was terrified of you and was, over a substantial amount of time, doing all he could to try and get you out of trouble.”
Judge Loraine-Smith jailed Abraham for kidnap, false imprisonment and blackmail.
Twenty nine-year-old Pierre Walrond, of Newton Road, Essex, was told he would serve 10 years and three months behind bars and fellow gang member, Olutola Gisanrin, 37, from Rotherhithe Street, Southwark, was given an indeterminate sentence with a recommendation to serve 10 years and three months in prison.
Harjinder Khakh, 39, from Percy Bush Road, West Drayton, was described by Judge Loraine-Smith as the organiser and received an indeterminate sentence with a recommendation to serve 11 years and three months.
All four had pleaded guilty to the three charges at Soutwark Crown Court on November 25.
Detective Inspector Steve Wagstaff, from the Met Police’s Kidnap Unit, said: “The operation to rescue the hostage highlights our dedication to eradicating violent and threatening behaviour of this kind from the capital.”
The fifth gang member, 29-year-old Sukhdev Khakh, from Sidney Road, Walton, is due to be sentenced on March 27. He was found guilty of kidnap, false imprisonment and blackmail at a trial on December 19.
