Canterbury businessman David Clemence has been found guilty of kidnapping a pair of men who were caught stealing diesel from his drilling company’s equipment – but not guilty of assault charges.
After a six-day trial, covered over the last week by DIESELtalk, the jury found Clemence guilty of kidnapping Matthew Darryl Pender-McLean, aged 20 at the time, and Carl Edward Clark, 23.
At the time of the April 2011 incident, Clemence was fed-up with thefts from his firm, Clemence Drilling, which has been working on earthquake repairs to water pipes. A ute theft a month before the incident took the number of reported crimes against the company’s property in the preceding months to seven.
Once the two thieves were detained, Clemence had the men driven around Kaiapoi to identify their homes. The next day Clemence, and the men who caught them, effectively searched them.
The tour of Kaiapoi gave the jury grounds to find that the detention was unlawful. It returned its verdicts after about 11 hours of deliberation.
Canterbury police have been quoted by stuff.co.nz as saying while a citizen’s arrest is within your rights, Clemence and his associates overstepped the mark.
“If you catch someone doing something at night, and it’s safe to take some action . . . detain them and then ring police straight away.”
Judge Gary MacAskill asked for a report to be prepared on Clemence’s suitability for home detention ahead of his sentencing on December 4. The two thieves had earlier pleaded guilty to burglary charges and have been sentenced – Pender got home detention, and Clark got community work.
