A man who wanted to keep his hands clean over a sanitiser debt – promising a kidnapper $5000 to abduct a debtor – has been sentenced to 12 months' home detention.

Qiang Liu, 42, received the sentence at Rotorua District Court on Friday after earlier pleading guilty to one charge that he 'procured person unknown to unlawfully take away Lei Pan without his consent to hold him for ransom”.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of 14 years' imprisonment.

The kidnapping plan was enacted because of debts in a Chinese hand sanitiser importing deal, court documents show. Pan had entered the agreement with a company linked to Liu's uncle, but failed to make payments for the products.

According to Crown prosecutor Alex Maino​, 'it was [Liu] that orchestrated the kidnapping”.

'A sentence of imprisonment is appropriate,” she said.

Liu's lawyer Philip Morgan KC told the court his client had been 'asked by an uncle in China to recover a debt”.

'Debt collection is perfectly lawful, just not the way this man proposed to do it.”

He said Liu was 'approached” by an unknown man who promised to recover the debt, and that he provided the victim's photograph, invoice and information on his last known location.

He also said Liu has been the victim of an arson attack himself at his cabin business, and referred to CCTV footage he'd seen.

'Clearly an arson, you see a man go into these cabins, throw petrol in and set them on fire.”

He also said it was 'quite puzzling he has been so foolish”.

Talking about the arson coming so close to his sentencing, Judge Edwin Paul said 'the coincidence is startling”.

He also revealed Liu received a phone call on his wedding day telling him the man had successfully been grabbed.

Judge Paul also described the offending as displaying 'a level of foolishness”.

He cited Liu's business success, noting 'he cannot retreat to a position of naivety”.

According to the police summary of facts, the dispute began in early 2020 when Pan entered into a deal to acquire and import hand sanitiser products from a Chinese company for USD$165,264.00 (NZ$267,547).

The company was part owned by Liu's uncle, Bin Wang, who is also known to Pan.

The relationship became strained, 'when the complainant did not make payment for the purchased hand sanitiser products”.

This prompted Liu, some time between April 1 and June 16 last year, to meet 'with an unknown person (kidnapper) at an unknown address in Rotorua”.

'The defendant engaged the kidnapper to capture the complainant and drive him to Rotorua to scare him into repaying the money.”

Liu told the kidnapper to capture Pan 'and hold him in the boot of a vehicle overnight”.

The summary said Liu provided the kidnapper with a photograph of Pan, and an invoice for the USD$165,264.00.

'The defendant paid the kidnapper $5000 in consideration for providing the service.”

On June 16 last year, the kidnapper and two other unknown persons took Pan from his Henderson address after he was 'forcibly placed into the back seat of a BMW vehicle and driven to an unknown address”.

'When the complainant spoke, he was punched in the face. The complainant was blindfolded and one of the kidnappers told him, ‘hey bro, you need to pay the bill'.”

Pan was kept at an address overnight with is arms and feet bound, shown the invoice and the next day, driven to an unknown address in Rotorua.

He was then questioned about how much money he had and driven back to Auckland 'to retrieve money”.

However, police were at Pan's address after he had been reported missing, and the kidnappers released him in a nearby street.

He waved down a vehicle that took him to Henderson Police Station.

'When spoken to by police, the defendant stated that the complainant owes his uncle a lot of money.”

- Benn Bathgate/Stuff.