A KIDNAPPER who was part of a gang who tied up their victim and left him in the back of his own lorry while it was ransacked during a "co-ordinated and planned attack" has been jailed.

Jermaine Yamoah, 34, has been jailed for four years and four months after being part of a gang of five men posing as "plain clothed police officers in an unmarked car" as they followed a driver from his depot in Corringham.

The victim was found with his legs bound together with cable ties in the back of the lorry at an industrial estate in Grays.

Sentenced - Jermaine YamoahSentenced - Jermaine Yamoah (Image: Essex Police)

He had left the depot in the early hours of March 21 with a shipment of bananas from Colombia and was heading to the A13 when the black Kia Ceed pulled in front of the lorry and activated blue lights. A second vehicle boxed him in from behind.

Five men, wearing high-visibility jackets, told him they were working with the police and needed access to the lorry.

They then threatened the lorry driver and forced him into the back of the vehicle and drove it to the industrial unit where the victim was found.

He managed to alert a member of the public and used their mobile phone to raise the alarm.

Yamoah, of Inglis Way, Millbrook Park, London, was identified early on in the investigation, arrested and answered no comment when questioned. He was charged and admitted kidnap and criminal damage at Basildon Crown Court on Wednesday August 7.

 

Criminal damage at the sceneRansacked - Criminal damage at the scene (Image: Essex Police) When sentencing Yamoah to four years and four months in prison at the same court yesterday, Judge Sam Leigh indicated she thought it was “inconceivable” to think that a targeted hit on a lorry was to recover bananas.

Detective Inspector Yoni Adler, part of the investigative team, said: “This was a brutal and terrifying incident for the victim in this case.

“It was a co-ordinated and planned attack involving a number of people.

“As a result of a thorough investigation by a team of officers, our irrefutable evidence left Yamoah no choice but to plead guilty to his crimes, however he was not operating alone on that day and our investigation continues.

“We have a very clear message. If you come to Essex intent on committing offences, then we will pursue you and bring you before the courts."

Yamoah denied a third charge of participating in the criminal activities of an organised crime group, and this will lie on file.