/ 19 October 2004

Japanese man fakes own kidnap to pay for wedding

A Japanese man looking to finance his wedding tried to convince his fiancée that he had been kidnapped and that she should seek millions of yen in ransom from his boss, police said on Tuesday.

Kiyokazu Konishi (32) was found safe in a car on Monday in the western city of Osaka and admitted faking the abduction by sending e-mails on his mobile phone pretending to be a kidnapper, a police spokesperson said.

”Someone special to you has been captured,” said one of three messages sent to Konishi’s 24-year-old fiancée, according to police.

”Please prepare 15-million yen ($137 600) by cooperating with this fellow’s company,” another message said.

The woman relayed the messages to the president of a transport company where Konishi worked. The company contacted police, who arrested Konishi when they found him.

Police had no comment on whether the wedding was still on.

News reports said the wedding scheduled for the end of this month was to cost about two million yen and that the man already had loans totalling 34,5-million yen. – Sapa-AFP