Five years for gun-toting businessman who set out for revenge

A MAN who blamed a former business partner for a series of death threats was jailed for five years and three months yesterday for arming himself with a handgun to seek revenge.

Frank Schyvens and Michael Kartono ran a furniture shop, Belgica UK, in Bo'ness, West Lothian, but they had an acrimonious split in 2003.

Last March, Schyvens, 51, of Alva, Clackmannanshire, went to the shop with a Smith & Wesson revolver and 13 bullets, and demanded to be told by staff where he could find Mr Kartono, 45. He said he wanted revenge and that if Mr Kartono was there, he would "pop him straight away".

He forced Stuart Edmonston and Joan Todd into a car and made Mr Edmonston drive away, but the police had been alerted and armed officers arrested Schyvens.

Schyvens admitted assaulting Mr Edmonston and Ms Todd and placing them in fear for their lives. He also pleaded guilty to firearms offences.

Schyvens told the High Court in Edinburgh that, after he left the business and set up in competition to Mr Kartono, he had been pursued by debt collectors for unpaid bills that had nothing to do with him.

There were other incidents, he alleged, such as tyres on his van being let down and alarms going off in the middle of the night.

He received messages made from letters cut from newspapers and stuck on to sheets of paper. One had stated: "We let you live til we decide you go with a bang."

Mr Kartono denied he was responsible for the letters.

Lord Mackay said the sentence would have been seven years, but Schyvens was due a discount for pleading guilty.