Kidnappers' jail term plea fails

Two gangsters enlisted to help kidnap a student and steal his £20,000 tuition fees have failed to win a cut in their sentences.

The Court of Appeal ruled the pair's role in the plot – which left the victim suicidal – was so serious their sentences did not come close to being excessive.

Sin Jung Lin (27), of Sunningdale Close, Wrexham, and Xiao Bo Yan (27), of no fixed abode, both admitted possessing an imitation firearm, as well as false imprisonment, blackmail, robbery and kidnap.

They were jailed for 11 years and 11-and-a-half years respectively at Leicester Crown Court in August last year.

Mrs Justice Rafferty, sitting with Lady Justice Hallett and Judge Richard Brown at London's Appeal Court, heard that, in September 2007, Yan, Lin and the gang's ringleader travelled to Loughborough, where their Chinese victim, who was 23, was studying at Loughborough University.

He was kidnapped by the three armed men, who burst into his home in Garendon Street.

He was threatened, punched in the face and driven to London, where he was held captive in a flat overnight.

The victim was targeted because he had access to £20,000 – mainly for his tuition fees.

The gang members forced him to move £14,000 into his current account and he told them he would contact his parents for the remaining £6,000.

In London, Lin was dropped off and the remaining two set about extracting the money from post offices and financial institutions.

Eventually, the pair allowed their victim to travel back to university – but first made him take hold of a gun they claimed had been used in a murder, threatening to hand it over to police with his fingerprints on if they did not get the rest of the cash.

Back in Loughborough, the victim was so terrified he booked a flight out of the country.

But, after two threatening phone calls, he reported the incident and the trio were arrested.

The victim later said he feared he would be killed and was worried his family would be targeted. He considered killing himself.

Mrs Justice Rafferty said the enterprise had been "professional, determined and terrifying".

Turning down the appeal, she said: "This was an exercise in cold, planned, efficient terrorising and, as the sentencing judge remarked, all three men behaved like gangsters.

"The offences were mob-handed, beginning with the men bursting in on the victim in his own accommodation."