Fourth member of Burnley kidnap gang is sent to jail (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Fourth member of Burnley kidnap gang is sent to jail

9:19am Friday 8th February 2013 in News By Wendy Barlow, Court reporter

A FOURTH Lithuanian gang member involved in a terror kidnap and blackmail has been locked up for 12 months.

Rimas Vilkevicius, 36, was with four other men, who were said to have demanded £10,000 cash from a factory worker with threats and weapons, ‘over a debt’.

Three of his accomplices, Albertas Filatovas, 37, Ruslan Sivoborod, 31, and Gediminas Paskevicius, 37, had been jailed for a total of six-and-a half years on Wednesday by Judge Andrew Woolman, at Burnley Crown Court.

Sivoborod, of Melville Street, and Filatovas, Vilkevicius and Paskevicius, of Brennand Street, all Burnley, had each admitted kidnapping and blackmailing Donatos Malciiaukas, last August 17.

Filatovas, who also pleaded guilty to producing cannabis and abstracting electricity, was jailed for three years. Sivoborod and Paskevicius were both sent to prison for 21 months.

The court had heard fellow Lithuanian Mr Malciiaukas had been told he would be cut up and beaten if he didn’t go with the men. The victim had been instructed to hand over £10,000 because Filatovas thought he owed him the money and was warned if he didn’t pay up, he would be overdosed with heroin and left for dead in the street.

The hearing was told Mr Malciiaukas had been punched, driven to a cash machine, taken to it by a hooded knifeman and then handed over the £100 he had withdrawn. The four defendants all face deportation after serving their sentences.