Man sentenced for raider kidnap

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/leicestershire/7962528.stm

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A man kidnapped an intruder after police said a response to his 999 call could be delayed, a court has heard.

Sean Preson, 41, rang police after catching raiders trying to steal equipment from a site he was working on, Leicester Crown Court heard.

He and an employee, Ashley Shepherd, 25, forced one of the men into a van.

The men, from Forest Road, Huncote, Leicestershire, admitted kidnap and were given 12-month jail terms suspended for two years.

Preson and Shepherd were also given 200 and 150 hours unpaid work respectively.

'Incident prioritised'

Building firm boss Preson rang Leicestershire Police last August when he spotted the break-in, but decided to take the law into his own hands when the police told him it might take two days to send an officer, the court heard.

He and Shepherd took one offender in a van to the home of another suspect, where an altercation took place.

Police were subsequently called and both Preson and Shepherd were arrested.

Leicestershire Police later defended their actions, saying it had been established that the intruders had left the scene 20 minutes before the call and there was no immediate risk of harm.

A force spokeswoman said: "(The defendant) was clearly told that the incident was prioritised for officers to attend that night.

"Officers were assigned to deal with the incident 50 minutes after the call was received but were diverted to deal with reports of an assault, which we later established related to offences that the two defendants admitted to in court."

She added that four people were subsequently dealt with for the initial theft of lighting equipment from the site.