A Rotorua Chinese community leader who struck a deal to pay $5000 to a kidnapper to capture a man who owed his uncle a debt has been sentenced to home detention.

Qiang Liu, also known as Robert Liu, appeared in the Rotorua District Court today for sentencing after admitting his role in a kidnapping plot that saw an Auckland man blindfolded, his arms and feet bound, and held for 34 hours while he was driven around Auckland and the Bay of Plenty in the back of a BMW.

The kidnapping was designed to scare Lei Pan into repaying $265,000 owed to Liu’s uncle in China for imported hand sanitiser.

Liu, 41, pleaded guilty to a charge of procuring a person unknown to unlawfully take away Pan without his consent, with intent to hold him for ransom.

The offending happened on June 16 last year in Henderson, Auckland.

Judge Eddie Paul outlined the details of the offending, saying Liu met with a kidnapper and provided all the details he needed find Pan - including his photo and address. Liu told the kidnapper to capture Pan and hold him in the boot of a car overnight.

Liu gave the kidnapper an invoice for the importation of the hand sanitiser. He was to pay the kidnapper $5000 for his services but no money ever changed hands, Paul said.

About 7.30am on June 16, the kidnapper and two other unknown people took Pan from his home in Henderson.

At one stage, the kidnappers drove Pan to Rotorua and contacted Liu but it happened to coincide with Liu’s wedding day. Liu told the kidnappers he couldn’t deal with the situation because he was getting married but contacted them the next day and instructed them to let Pan go.

Liu’s lawyer Phillip Morgan, KC, said Liu’s business had been hit by vandals and an arson this week, resulting in significant financial loss - this included vehicles at his business being smashed costing $2500 and two cabins that he made to order having petrol poured on them and set on fire, costing $42,000 in damage.

Judge Paul said while he couldn’t speculate on the timing of the attacks being at the same time as Liu’s sentencing, he said the coincidence was “startling”.

Robert Liu was photographed by the Rotorua Daily Post in 2019 after helping Chinese families following a fatal tourist bus crash. Photo / Stephen Parker

Liu was described as a leader in the Chinese community who had helped Chinese nationals and their families after several visitors lost their lives in a tourist bus crash in 2019.

Judge Paul said Liu had also used his contacts to get face masks sent to Rotorua during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Judge Paul agreed with Morgan it was puzzling that a man of Liu’s standing in the community would be so “foolish” to get involved in such a kidnapping scheme.

Morgan suggested it was out of misguided loyalty to his uncle and what eventuated was not what Liu had expected.

Judge Paul described Liu’s offending as a “significant fall from grace”.

“Yes there was a level of foolishness however he can not return to a position of naivety because of his business success and life he has built in Rotorua that suggests otherwise.”

Judge Paul took Morgan’s suggestions about mitigating factors, including guilty plea, remorse and otherwise good character, into consideration and sentenced him to 12 months’ home detention.