Three jailed for holding men hostage in Netherton
Three members of a gang who held two men hostage for four hours in a row over a car are starting jail sentences.
One victim was bound with cable ties, threatened with death and left trussed up in a shipping container.
Amir Pervez was lured to RMS Auto in Northfield Road, Netherton, by a phone call asking him to install a satellite TV, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
It is believed he had upset the family involved with the business by selling a £7,500 VW Passat to one of their relatives while it was on hire purchase, Mr Stephen Thomas, prosecuting, said.
Mr Pervez arrived with neighbour Lee Hammond, who had been helping him with a garden chore when the call came.
Brothers Raja Sharaz, Raja Malik, friend Adam Loveridge and their elder brother secretly filmed Mr Pervez putting in the TV system, believing it was an unofficial installation, and threatened to hand the footage to the authorities if he did not pay £10,000.
They aimed to get the money by selling cars owned by him but needed keys and documentation for the vehicles. He was tied up, threatened with a knife and warned he could be killed by the gang, who kept the Corsa he had arrived in as 'collateral' after forcing him to give up ownership.
Mr Pervez was put in a shipping container at the RMS Auto repair yard for a short time while the thugs drove Mr Hammond home after warning him of dire consequences if he raised the alarm.
They then took Mr Pervez to collect the required vehicle keys and documentation from his home in Tipton.
But this gave him the chance to tell his wife what had happened, and she alerted relatives who lived nearby and the police.
Relatives started gathering at the property, forcing the gang to flee empty handed, but that did not stop them showing film footage of what they had done to Mr Pervez to two colleagues who provided police with vital evidence. The Corsa was later recovered.
Loveridge, aged 26, of Cornflower Crescent, Kates Hill, Dudley, was arrested a week later, two days before Malik, of nearby Jasmine Road.
Sharaz, of the same address, was detained in January, and their older brother is on the run overseas.
The three defendants were each jailed for eight years. All of them had been convicted of robbery and false imprisonment following an earlier trial.
