{"id":6046,"date":"2013-10-10T12:37:35","date_gmt":"2013-10-10T12:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/10\/10\/fake-kidnap-man-jailed\/"},"modified":"2016-01-07T13:33:38","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T13:33:38","slug":"fake-kidnap-man-jailed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2013\/10\/10\/fake-kidnap-man-jailed\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Fake Kidnap&#8217; Man Jailed"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<h3>Birmingham man has been jailed for blackmailing his family &#8211; by faking kidnap<\/h3>\n<div><strong><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"1\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"\" vspace=\"10\" align=\"middle\" src=\"http:\/\/theasiantoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/fake_kidnap_460x225.jpg\"\/><\/strong><\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div><strong\/><\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div><strong\/><\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div><strong>A BIRMINGHAM man has been jailed for blackmailing his family &#8211; by claiming he had been kidnapped and was being held by men threatening to kill him.<\/strong><\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Zubair Hussain appeared before Warwickshire Justice Centre where he was sentenced to eight months imprisonment, after police unravelled a web of lies he spun in order to extort money from relatives on New Years\u2019 Eve last year.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>As people were waiting to see in 2013, the family of Hussain received text messages claiming that the 24-year-old had been kidnapped.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>The series of messages demanded money in order to ensure he did not come to harm. To make the claims believable, Hussain &#8211; a driver from Sparkbrook &#8211; even sent picture messages of himself lying on a bed with a bag over his head and his wrists apparently bound.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>The kidnapping was reported to police and a large-scale investigation was launched by city detectives. Some 24 hours later Hussain was tracked to a house in the Ernsford Grange area of Coventry. The 24-year-old was safe and well and there was no trace of anyone holding him against his will.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Hussain was subsequently arrested on suspicion of blackmail and was charged with the offence in April.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Nine months after making the audacious claims, Hussain pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to eight months imprisonment.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Detective Inspector Martin Brennan, from West Midlands Police Serious and Organised Crime Unit, said: \u201cThis case highlights what can happen when someone makes false accusations and wastes police time in such an audacious manner.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cAny report of kidnap is treated very seriously and significant, costly, resources are deployed to ensure the victim is returned safe and well, whilst those responsible are detained.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cTo recklessly make such claims not only wastes police resources which could have been used elsewhere but caused his family and friends unnecessary distress.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cThe family believed that Zubair had been kidnapped and that there was a real possibility of him being seriously harmed or even killed.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cHopefully this prison sentence demonstrates that such incidents will be dealt with robustly by the courts and should act as a deterrent to others.&#8221;<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>The images show the photographs sent by Hussain to his family.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Birmingham man has been jailed for blackmailing his family &#8211; by faking kidnap &#13; &#13; &#13; A BIRMINGHAM man has been jailed for blackmailing his family &#8211; by claiming he had been kidnapped and was being held by men threatening to kill him. &#13; \u00a0 &#13; Zubair Hussain appeared before Warwickshire Justice Centre where he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}