A CORRUPT policeman plotted to kidnap a bank manager and force him to reveal how best to steal money.
Constable Mesut Karakas, 25, of Wragby Road, Leytonstone, conspired with four other men to seize the victim by creating fake roadworks outside his house as a distraction.
A police raid revealed the group had been collecting items including false number plates, industrial gaffer tape, dust masks, a balaclava, plasti-cuffs and industrial ear protectors in preparation for the kidnap.
They were arrested in October 2009 before the plot could be carried out.
Karakas was suspended and then sacked in February this year.
Details of the complex case can only now be released after gang member Richmond Darko, 25, of Grays in Essex, was found guilty of conspiracy to kidnap yesterday (October 6).
Karakas was already being investigated for corruption when the kidnap plot was unearthed.
He was with three of the gang members on a night out in Islington in July last year when they got into a fight with a man outside a pub.
The group left the scene but returned with a baseball bat and attacked the man, leaving him with multiple injuries.
They were caught on CCTV as they ran away from the scene of the attack.
Karakas then accessed the police file on the incident and showed a copy to fellow gang member Jamie Lowe.
Lowe then tried to pressure the victim into dropping the case and an envelope was later posted through the man’s door.
Karakas, Darko, Lowe, 25, of Clapton, and Ijah Rowe, 24, of Chobham Road, Stratford, all pleaded guilty to the assault.
Karakas, Rowe, Lowe and Gokhan Kuru, 24, of Finsbury Park, also pleaded guilty to conspiring to kidnap and are due to be sentenced on October 22.
Detective Chief Inspector Chris Robson, of the Met's Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS), said: "Kidnap plots like this are very rare but if these five criminals had had the opportunity to carry out their plans it would have been an extremely traumatic experience for their victim.“
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