Blackmailers have jail term halved

An Oldham blackmailer who tried to terrorise a Leicester business man into handing over £1 million had his jail term halved on appeal yesterday.

Lee Kenneth Taberer posed as a notorious gangster and, along with accomplice Dialjit Rana, threatened their wealthy victim and his family in a series of menacing phone calls.

Taberer (39) and 33-year-old Rana, were each jailed for eight years at Leicester Crown Court in October last year after admitting blackmail. But their sentences were yesterday cut to four years at the Court of Appeal in London, after top judges ruled the original terms were excessive.

The court heard their victim, Vijay Chugani, was a wealthy business man who lived in a substantial property in Leicester.

In a series of threatening calls, Taberer, of Dryclough Walk, masqueraded as Paul Massey — a man described in court as a well-known criminal from Manchester, who had committed various assaults and stabbings.

During one call, Taberer said: “I can come to your house with 50 guys.”

He told Mr Chugani he would kidnap members of his family if he didn’t hand over the money.

He told the business man he was calling on behalf of another man, who Rana, of Houghton on the Hill, Leicestershire, then posed as — phoning the victim himself and demanding the cash.

After searching the Internet and finding information on Paul Massey, Mr Chugani contacted police and the phone calls were traced to a hotel car park off the M6, near Stafford. The blackmailers were then traced and arrested at their homes on January 26 last year.

Police recovered paperwork containing details of Mr Chugani and found the phone Taberer used to call him, which the blackmailer had topped up using his credit card.

Attacking their sentences as too long, the pair’s lawyers said the crown court judge wrongly considered their crime at the top end of the scale of seriousness.

Allowing the appeal, Sir Christopher Holland, sitting with Lord Justice Richards and Mr Justice Spencer, said the sentencing judge was in error and halved both men’s terms.