Kidnapper who took pounds 40,000 is jailed

A FINANCIAL adviser who kidnapped a bank manager's wife and demanded pounds 40,000 ransom money was jailed for 14 years yesterday.

Tony Bosson-Williams, 28, kept Elizabeth Kerr bound and gagged in the boot of a car for more than four hours, Chester Crown Court was told.

Bosson-Williams admitted kidnapping Mrs Kerr, 38, in August 1992, robbing her husband David of pounds 40,000, and demanding pounds 75,000 from another bank manager.

David Hale, for the prosecution, said Bosson-Williams called at the Kerrs' home in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, dressed as a policeman. He told Mrs Kerr her husband had been in an accident and drove her away saying he would take her to the hospital.

He later stopped the car, hit her in the face, tied her hands behind her and blindfolded her with a cloth before bundling her in the car boot. He took a Polaroid photograph of her, gagged her and put a bag over her head.

Later that day Bosson-Williams telephoned Mr Kerr, 38, at Barclays Bank in Sale, giving instructions for handing over the ransom.

Mr Kerr drove with the money towards the M63 and was flashed by Bosson-Williams's car, with Mrs Kerr in the boot. Bosson-Williams, of Whitchurch, Shropshire, took the money and abandoned Mrs Kerr in a ditch. She freed her feet and struggled to a house.

Mr Hale said Bosson-Wil liams had earlier tried and failed to kidnap the wife of Geraint Pritchard-Jones, manager of the National Westminster in Solihull, West Midlands.