RENOWNED master jeweller Peter Edward Charles Williams has been sentenced to a maximum of three years and three months in jail for luring a clockmaker into the back room of his shop to recoup a debt before four unknown men bashed, robbed and kidnapped him.
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Williams, of Williams Jewellers on Beaumont Street, spent his first night in custody on Wednesday before he was sentenced to at least one year and nine months in jail in Newcastle District Court on Thursday.
He will be eligible for parole in January, 2018.
Williams, now 56, of Blackalls Park, pleaded guilty in November to a charge of aggravated kidnapping.
Court documents state the clockmaker, Williams and his co-accused, 74-year-old antique store owner William Barry Jones, all knew each other and had enjoyed a sporadic work relationship for a number of years leading up to the kidnapping on November 26, 2013.
Jones believed the clockmaker owed him money and had some of his clocks and barometers, court documents stated. Williams decided to help Jones and organised for the clockmaker to come to his store to fix a clock.
But before he arrived, CCTV footage from inside Williams Jewellers shows Williams welcoming four men into the shop. He showed them out the back and told the sales assistant to take her lunch break.
When the clockmaker arrived, Williams greeted him and also showed him to the back room, saying “in here”, court documents state.
Jones then appeared from an office and followed the clockmaker - now surrounded by the four men - into the back room.
One of the men said to the clockmaker: “you owe him money”, referring to Jones, court documents state.
Williams then left the back room, walked into the office and disabled the CCTV cameras.
The clockmaker tried to leave the back room but was punched in the face by one of the four men.
He was then robbed of his wallet, keys and a diamond ring before being threatened and forced to sit down as his wrists were secured with cable ties. The men walked the clockmaker out of the store and to a black car, where two of the men produced a knife and a taser. They drove him to a storage shed where he was forced to reveal his access codes and robbed of property before being dumped in Cooks Hill.
In a victim impact statement, the clockmaker said the financial damage he suffered was “at least $160,000”, including the diamond ring, which he said was valued at $40,000. Jones was last year sentenced to a 23-month suspended jail term for his role in the kidnapping.
