Mark Cane, then aged 56, pleaded guilty in April 2022 to one count of kidnapping for ransom over an incident in which he and his co-offenders attempted to settle a $3500 debt.

Cane and the co-offenders forced the man into a vehicle at 2pm on August 9, 2019, punched him in the face and demanded he empty his pockets.

The victim was further assaulted and driven to a unit at which Cane and the co-offenders discussed putting him in a car and setting it alight, and threatened to pour boiling water over him.

The victim was forced to call his mother and brother, who could hear him crying and grunting as he was assaulted.

“You think you’re banged up? Cop this,” one of the kidnappers was heard to say over the phone before hitting the victim again.

The victim’s brother agreed to meet with the abductors and hand over $1500 but he also called police, who set up an operation to covertly attend the money handover at a fast food outlet.

The victim suffered multiple injuries including a black eye with significant swelling as well as fractures to his eye socket, cheekbone, nose and jaw.

Cane was sentenced by the Cairns District Court to six years’ imprisonment with parole eligibility to start immediately due to spending more than 1000 days on remand.

The Court of Appeal on Wednesday found that the judge in sentencing should not have made reference to Cane allegedly inflicting violence on the victim, as the prosecution had earlier dropped his two other charges of common assault and assault occasioning bodily harm.

“It was impermissible for the sentencing judge to treat the fact that (Cane) had inflicted actual violence … rendered (the kidnapping) a more serious example of the offence,” the judgment said.

Cane’s sentence was reduced to five years alongside a separate term of nine months imposed for dangerous operation of a motor vehicle when police attempted to arrest him for the kidnapping.