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Man convicted of detention of food delivery driver ‘got off easy’, victim says

A food delivery man who was held against his will said his captor got off too lightly.

Romone Reid insisted Sam Fraser-Smith, 43, was let off the hook in Magistrates’ Court after two of the original three charges were dropped and the defendant received a year-long conditional discharge for the remaining offence.

Mr Reid said: “I gave up my personal information, my house address, my licence for my car – everything.

“He got off too easy – it doesn’t feel like justice was served.”

Mr Reid was speaking after Fraser-Smith, a former police officer, was sentenced last week for depriving Mr Reid of his liberty.

He pleaded guilty to the offence on November 23 last year after the Crown dropped a charge of use of an imitation firearm to deprive Mr Reid of his liberty and another charge of threatening behaviour.

Fraser-Smith’s wife, Saruttana, 39, was also charged with threatening behaviour, deprivation of liberty and use of a knife as a weapon.

She denied all the charges and the Crown offered no evidence last November.

Mr Reid’s wife, Sabrina, who was with her husband during the sentencing, said the verdict was a “slap on the wrist”.

She added that the couple would speak to the Department of Public Prosecutions with a view to an appeal against the sentence.

Mr Reid, a driver for the Sargasso Sea delivery service, visited the home of Mike Epps in Hamilton Parish to deliver food.

He told Mr Epps why he was there, but Mr Epps said that no one in the house had ordered a takeaway.

Fraser-Smith, Mr Epps’s stepson who lived on the same property, approached the two and demanded Mr Reid show him identification.

Mr Reid showed him his Sargasso Sea ID and his driver’s licence and Fraser-Smith eventually let him leave the property.

The delivery driver later told his supervisor about the incident, who contacted police. Officers arrested Fraser-Smith later that day.

The offence happened on October 28 last year.

Fraser-Smith underwent a social inquiry report that was submitted to the court to assist with sentencing.

The contents of the report was not disclosed in court, but magistrate Craig Attridge heard that the prosecution and defence agreed that a conditional discharge was appropriate.

Victoria Greening, for the defence, declined to comment on the case.

Carrington Mahoney, for the Crown, who appeared for the Crown, did not respond to a request for comment.

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