A North Canterbury businessman is fighting charges of kidnapping and assault after tackling two alleged burglars at his Kaiapoi premises.
Clemence Drilling owner Dave Clemence was arrested after the April 8 incident, during which he and several employees tackled two men believed to have stolen diesel from the Smith St site.
Clemence declined to comment yesterday, saying he did not want to "pervert the course of justice".
However, he told the Northern Outlook newspaper last month he could not understand why he had been charged.
He said he took the men to the Kaiapoi police station on April 8 and did not know how the pair had been injured.
"It's unbelievable. Kidnapping? We dropped them off to the police," Clemence said.
He said he would plead not guilty to the charges when he appeared in the Rangiora District Court on Wednesday next week.
On the face of it, this seems to be a very strange situation. Mr Clemence claims that his company premises have been burgled SIX times in the last few months, and one can understand his frustration. He maintains that neither he nor his staff caused any injuries to the guys they detained. And interestingly, none of his staff have yet been charged.
Doubtless there's more to come on this case, which we will follow with interest. It could be an interesting test case as to what rights a victim of crime actually has to detain alleged offenders, and deliver them to the police.
2 comments:
Turns out the law is clear: you've rights to "detain" (aka "arrest") but no rights to "deliver to the police" (aka kidnapping).
Apparently the police have yet to understand that the public get mighty annoyed when they turn on those who are doing the job they refused to do.
Roll on the jury trial...
Post a Comment