Ali Raffati and Mehdi Hefzabad plead guilty in County Court over Mernda kidnapping

A man was forced into a rental van and ordered to pay $50,000 while a knife was being held over his head after one of his captors said he’d bad mouthed people.

A Preston man was forced to hand over $12,000 in cash to one of two men who held him against his will for about an hour.

Two people have admitted their role in holding a man against his will and threatening him unless he produced $50,000.

Ali Raffati, 34, and Mehdi Hefzabad, 41, are awaiting sentence after pleading guilty in the County Court to forcing their victim into a rental van after being accused by Raffati of bad mouthing people.

The pair picked him up from a friend’s house in Mernda on June 2022 and drove him around for more than an hour before dropping him off at his Preston apartment.

There, the victim was threatened with a knife and told he needed to pay them $50,000.

He told Raffiti he couldn’t pay that much but could ask a friend to lend him a fraction of the amount.

He eventually handed over $12,000.

Rahmatullah Bastamizadeh was forced to hand over $12,000 to one of his captors.

A third man, Reza Tape, is also accused of taking part in the kidnapping but is still facing the courts after his lawyer unexpectedly requested an adjournment on Friday.

Without a written application, Phillip Bloemen’s request for his client’s plea to be adjourned for a psychiatric assessment attracted sharp rebuke from Judge Gerard Mullaly.

“Why is it left without a proper evidentiary basis?” he asked.

“Have we created a culture in this court where people ask for an adjournment and they’ll get it? That’s not how the criminal justice system works. Not in my court.

“I don’t for a minute doubt the difficulties confronting hardworking solicitors but this is the type of task that solicitors have in civil proceedings — the idea that there wouldn’t be affidavits provided for adjournments just wouldn’t run.”

Mr Tape’s case was adjourned and will return to court on July 23.