Revenge of the old rage pensioners.
A GANG of pensioners who kidnapped and tortured their financial adviser when their fortunes turn to losses, allegedly due to the global credit crisis, were yesterday charged with illegal hostage taking and grievous bodily harm.
American-born James Amburn, 56, was ambushed outside his home in Speyer, west Germany, where he was bound with masking tape and bundled into the boot of a car after being hit over the head with the walking stick of one of his kidnappers.
"It took them quite a while because they ran out of breath," said Mr Amburn, who was driven to the Bavarian lakeside home of one of the gang who lost the equivalent of almost £2 million in total.
Another retired couple joined the kidnappers in the cellar where Mr Amburn was chained up and tortured for four days in June.
"The fear of death was indescribable," Mr Amburn said. He was rescued when he was ordered to send a fax to release funds from a Swiss bank and managed to scribble a message on it for the recipient to call police.
Police in Germany said the gang had received fan letters since the kidnapping but that "nothing could excuse" their behaviour.
Two of the kidnappers, Roland Koenig, 74, and Willy Dehmer, 60, attacked Mr Amburn outside his home and bundled him into an oversize cardboard box.
He was then stuffed into the boot of their silver Audi saloon car and driven 300 miles to the home of Koenig, on the shores of Lake Chiemsee in Bavaria.
The Koenigs were among five pensioners who said they lost their "nest eggs" after investing through Mr Amburn's firm, Digitalglobalnet.
Another couple, retired doctors Gerhard and Iris Fell, aged 63 and 66, arrived to assist the kidnappers, who also included Koenig's wife, Sieglinde, 79.
While in the cellar, Mr Amburn claims he was chained up "like an animal", burned with cigarettes and had two ribs broken when he was hit with a chair leg.
He said: "I told them that if I sold certain securities in Switzerland they could get their money and for this I had to send a fax to a bank."
They agreed and he sent a fax. But unbeknown to them, he had scribbled a message on the bottom of the paper for whoever received it to call the police.
Allowed out of the cellar for a cigarette break in the garden while the kidnappers awaited their loot, Mr Amburn attempted to escape over a wall.
In the pouring rain he ran down the street pursued by his captors in the Audi A8 they had used to transport him to the house.
Several people saw him, but Roland Koening shouted: "He's a burglar!"
Mr Amburn was then dragged back to the cellar where he sustained the broken ribs as a "punishment" for trying to escape.
Shortly afterwards, the Swiss bank telephoned police in Germany and a team of armed commandos stormed the house.
His captors now face a minimum of five years in jail each if they are found guilty. Their trial begins in the New Year.
Chief public prosecutor Volker Ziegler said: "They were angry because they invested money in properties in Florida and Kuwaiti funds and he lost it all.
"This was black money – they hadn't declared it to the revenue authorities in Germany."
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