Kidnap man faces lengthy jail sentence

Trevor Chrouch, aged 39, of Ormes Mead, Owlthorpe, Sheffield, will be sentenced on November 7 along with Dean Rice, 45, his wife Nichole, 41, of Swanley Village, Kent, and Michael Kelly, 63, of Sidcup, Kent.

There were screams from women in the public gallery at Maidstone Crown Court as the court verdicts were announced.

Two other accused, Badhader More, 38, of Gravesend, Kent, and Anthony Toms, 61, of Dyfed, Wales, were found not guilty. And Dean Rice, Chrouch and Toms were also cleared of a charge of assault causing actual bodily harm.

During the trial the court was told kidnap victim Alan Clarke, a former employee of Deane Rice, was grabbed on a Camden Street as he walked his dog and taken to a farm near Ashford in Kent.

In 2004 he had worked for around eight months for a company called Erith Storage Ltd which Rice and his wife ran.

Prosecutor Andrew Espley said Clarke had suspected the business was not what it appeared and there had been rumours that Dean Rice was involved in smuggling drugs.

Clarke had managed to escape from the Kent farm where he was held by jumping from a window.

He had also on another occasion been lured to a warehouse and threatened with a gun and had received threatening phone calls.

Rice, who has been on bail during the trial was not present for the verdicts.

The court was told he has disappeared and it was highly likely he had left the country.

The judge warned that all the sentences would be substantial.

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