The head of a struggling building company kidnapped a customer’s wife and two-year-old daughter over a disputed £5,000 bill.

The woman and child were held for almost 24 hours after the woman’s husband was told that he would be killed and his family would meet an “untimely end” if he called the police. The kidnapping was so well planned that there were toys and a Garfield DVD for the child in the barn where they were held.

Earlier this week Tony Scaife, 52, and his son Matthew admitted conspiracy to kidnap. No details of the incident were given to the court but the kidnap plot was detailed to magistrates earlier this year.

There had been civil court proceedings for £5,000 Scaife claimed he was owed for building work but which the customer had not paid because he was unhappy with the standard of work. The dispute was finally settled in March this year but the building firm boss was still not happy.

The court was told that two men wearing balaclavas and overalls and carrying tape and firearms forced their way into the family’s home near Skipton, North Yorkshire, at about 4am on May 21.

Caroline Midgley, prosecuting, told Skipton Magistrates’ Court: “Both adults were tied up, held at gunpoint and were gagged with tape, meaning they had difficulty breathing. They were blindfolded.”

The two men demanded money, took £1,500 and ransacked the property. They then demanded that the victim go to a cash machine and withdraw £20,000. The husband refused to go with them or give them his credit card PIN and it was then that the two men decided to take the woman and child hostage. As they left they told the man that he would be killed if he called the police and a gun was pointed at him. The hostages were held at Scaife’s business premises in Long Preston, near Skipton, for almost 24 hours before being dropped off near their home.

Tony Scaife and his son will be sentenced at Bradford Crown Court on December 8. The family involved in the incident can not be identified for legal reasons.

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