Cattle trader hired kidnap thugs over unpaid debt

A LIVESTOCK dealer was tied up at gunpoint and held captive for five days after a Scots cattle trader hired a gang to kidnap him over an unpaid debt.

Robert Vevers, 59, of Crawick, Dumfries, took on a four-strong team and ‘effectively sold his soul to the devil’ as the plot spiralled out of control, Dungannon Crown Court, in Northern Ireland, heard yesterday.

Vevers contacted criminals in Dublin. They recruited men in Omagh who went on to demand a ransom of 400,000 euros from the father of the victim and threatened to cut off his fingers.

In what judge Paul Ramsey, QC, said was a ‘remarkable case’, Vevers pleaded guilty to kidnapping, false imprisonment and blackmail relating to the incident on October 1, 2012. He was sentenced to two-and-ahalf years in jail, suspended for three years. The judge said he had paid a very high price, with ‘his reputation lost, his good name in tatters’.

While it was conceded the victim had owed him money, it provided an explanation, not an excuse, he said.

Four men from County Tyrone, Patrick Noel McCaul, 44; Matthew McClean, 27; Robert McClean, 22 and Martin Arkinson, 21, admitted taking part in the plot and were given suspended sentences.

Irish prosecutors had decided there was not enough evidence to charge the Dublin gang in the Republic of Ireland.