Vigilantes bundle man into car boot in Chatham
The two vigilantes were
jailed after appearing at Maidstone Crown Court above
by Keith Hunt
Two vigilantes bundled a terrified teenager into boot of a car
and drove off after accusing him of robbing a boy of a small amount
of cash, a court heard.
Kamran Kamali and his brother-in-law Stephen Bates only
travelled a short distance in the Mercedes with Jozef Bado in
Chatham before they were stopped by the police and arrested.
The 18-year-old victim wept with relief as he thanked the two
officers for rescuing him.
Kamali, of Balmoral Road, Gillingham, and Bates, of Chaucer
Road, Gillingham, admitted kidnap and were each jailed for 18
months.
A judge told them: “It must be clearly understood that no-one in
this country should take the law into their own hands, and those
who do can expect nothing other than punishment.”
Judge Charles Byers added there was no evidence that the victim
was responsible for a robbery, except for an unsatisfactory
identification in the street.
Prosecutor Keith Yardy said the teenager was walking from work
at Medway Hospital on September 27 last year and had reached
Chatham Hill when he saw the Mercedes.
The car stopped and Kamali, 38, shouted at Jozef that he had
robbed the boy of £10.
“Mr Bado protested his innocence, but Mr Kamali would not
listen,” Mr Yardy told Maidstone Crown Court. “Mr Kamali and Mr
Bates then grabbed hold of Mr Bado, who struggled to break free but
could not do so.”
Kamali told the teenager they were going to take him somewhere.
He and Bates, 32, dragged him to the boot and pushed him in.
“He was crying in distress and trying to resist being put into
the boot,” said Mr Yardy. “The boot was closed and the car drove
off.”
"It must have been a very frightening experience to be bundled into the boot of a car with the lid closed and driving off" – Judge Charles Byers
It was stopped in
Green Street by the officers and Kamali immediately opened the
boot. Both men repeated the robbery allegation.
They at first claimed Jozef got into the car willingly. Kamali
also stated he had made a citizen’s arrest and was going to take
the teenager to the police station, but instead drove to Green
Street to speak to his friend Darren Murphy, who runs a martial
arts club there.
Bates said the intention had been to “shake the lad up verbally,
but not physically”.
Mr Yardy said Kamali had 12 alias names and two alias dates of
birth. Bates was in breach of a suspended sentence imposed for
producing cannabis.
Judge Byers said Kamali “got it wrong” by accusing Jozef Bado,
adding: “Even if they got it right, this sort of behaviour cannot
in any way be approved of, by taking matters into their own hands
and giving an 18-year-old by a fright in this way, whether he is
guilty or not.
“It must have been a very frightening experience to be bundled
into the boot of a car with the lid closed and driving off.”
The judge told Kamli and Bates: “What you did was quite wrong.
You should have called the police and allowed the law to take its
course. I can’t imagine a more frightening experience for such a
young lad, particularly as there were two of you.”
Guy Bowden, for Kamali, said references for the father-of-four
showed there was a different side to him.
“He has caused a great deal of stress to his wife of 15 years,”
he said. “He acted in a hot-headed and stupid fashion. He ought to
have called the police. No injury resulted, save for a sore
neck.”
James Holland, for Bates, said his client had suffered serious
mental problems, having been first sectioned when he was 20. He had
serious drug problems but had not taken any for two years.
10/01/13
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