Four jailed for kidnap and robbery of Birmingham teenager
It happened last September outside a snooker hall in the city centre
Four men have been jailed for a total of more than 35 years after kidnapping and robbing a teenager in Birmingham.
Their 17-year-old victim was outside a snooker hall in the city centre when he was bundled into a VW Golf on the evening Friday, 2 September, 2022.
In the car were four men, Nickyle Harris, Daejon Byfield, Panashe Mahachi and Danreiko Henry, who assaulted him and threatened him with a sawn-off shotgun and a samurai sword.
They drove him around the Tividale and Dudley Port areas as they sent demands for cash to contacts in his phone.
The men forced the youngster to hand over ÂŁ350 cash and transfer money out of his bank account as well as stealing his phone and trainers before leaving him near Dudley and Sandwell train station.
Investigators traced the Golf they'd used to Byfield and on 15 September located it in Leicestershire where it had been bought by a completely innocent party the day before.
Banking checks revealed that Mahachi was linked to the account the victim's money had been transferred to.
Forensic analysis of phone data also linked Harris and Henry to the other two men while ANPR mapped the Golf in the same locations as all the men's phones on the day of the kidnap.
Harris of Walton Road, Oldbury and Byfield, of Springbank Road, Birmingham, both aged 20, were jailed for 10 years for kidnap, robbery, possessing an offensive weapon and having a firearm with intent.
For the same offences, Mahachi, aged 20, of Linden Avenue, Oldbury was jailed for nine years and six months, and Henry, aged 19 of Hamilton Drive, Oldbury was jailed for eight years and six months. Byfield further admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply.
Det Sgt Matt Dyer from our Major Crime Team, said: "This was a co-ordinated and calculated operation to use violence and threats to extract cash from a 17-year-old.
"During the sentencing the judge commented that is was one of the most serious kidnap cases they'd dealt with in Birmingham.
"These men found it acceptable to put a teenager in fear for his life, but such actions are not acceptable and have resulted in significant jail sentences."