The 17-year-old was taken to a backyard shed at Young on April 26, 2014, by a man who rightly suspected the teenager had stolen $6650 – mostly the proceeds of selling a car –  amphetamine and cannabis from him.

After the man punched, tied up and gagged the teenager, Eissa Atallah, a father of two, came in to the shed to support his ripped-off friend.

Atallah, formerly of Young but most recently living at Harden, picked up a piece of wood about one metre long and threatened the teenager, who denied knowing about the theft.

Atallah reacted by striking the teenager’s left knee and then his feet, hand and stomach.

The teenager said he knew the whereabouts of the stolen property and took Atallah to a bogus location at Keith Cullen Oval where he pretended to look for the money and drugs before being able to run away to his home where the police were called.

The boy suffered minor injuries that did not require hospitalisation.

He told police where the stolen property was, and he was later charged with stealing the money.

The boy’s victim – and kidnapper – was given a 23-month intensive correction order last year after pleading guilty to specially aggravated kidnapping.

Atallah told police he acted “out of sympathy” for his friend who had lost a large amount of money.

In sentencing 26-year-old Atallah in Wagga District Court, Judge Gordon Lerve said that given the violence, the harm, the restraint and gagging – including having a rag stuffed in his mouth – the extent of the teenager’s terror must have been significant.

Atallah, who pleaded guilty to  detaining a person in company with intent to get an advantage occasioning actual bodily harm, was given a head jail sentence of two years starting from February 10.

He will be on parole for 12 months after being released from prison.

Judge Lerve said there was an “element of vigilante activity in the offending”.