A man dragged a terrified schoolboy into his car in the mistaken belief he had stolen some money he had just withdrawn from a cash machine.
But Leeds Crown Court heard the money had been retained by the machine because Mark Strickland had not picked it up quickly enough.
He was distracted by an argument on the phone with his girlfriend after she had thrown him out and had been seen to drive off at speed from the cashpoint at Morrisons in Meltham, only to return a minute later looking for the money.
When he did not find it he assumed it had been stolen and was directed towards a 14-year-old and his two friends who had been sitting nearby.
They ran off when he drove towards them and he then followed one in his car into a ginnel and confronted him shouting “Where’s my money?”
Heather Gilmore prosecuting said the frightened teenager said he did not have any money and Strickland then punched him in the ribs, only lightly so it did not cause injury but left the boy in shock.
Strickland then grabbed him by the lapels and forced him into his Ford Focus before driving off.
But within two minutes he realised the boy was innocent and took him back to the car park at Morrisons where he let the traumatised youth out.
By then the father of one of the other boys had arrived and asked what was going on. When Strickland claimed: “One of them thieving bastards has got my money” he was told that the machine often retained the cash if it was not collected quick enough.
As Strickland returned to his car a baseball bat fell from his clothes which he secreted in a bush where it was found when the police called by the store arrived.
Strickland, who seemed hyped up, repeated his account of being directed by other youths towards the boys when he found his money gone. He said he told the boy he was making “a Citizen’s Arrest.”
He said he returned to the youths and asked if the boy was the thief and it then became clear he was not the person.
Inquiries showed he had withdrawn £80 but it had not been stolen only retained by the machine while he was distracted. He said he was on the phone to his girlfriend arguing after she had thrown him out.
Adam Birkby representing him said as soon as he realised his mistake he taken the boy back and let him go. He had only acted that way because he had been directed by others “who must have been having a bit of a laugh.”
He had the baseball bat because he thought there might be trouble when he got out of the car.
He realised it had affected the boy deeply. “He wishes to apologise. It was a spur of the moment action and in hindsight he knows he should have acted differently.”
He had lost his job with the council since his conviction and had been the target of abuse on Facebook and elsewhere from people who did not know what had really happened.
Strickland, 41, of Leas Avenue, Holmfirth, admitted common assault and possessing an offensive weapon.
He was given a five-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months with 200 hours unpaid work, a three month curfew from 8pm to 5am and ordered to pay his victim, who cannot be identified, £500.
Judge Neil Clark told him he had made a “shocking mistake” thinking money had been stolen when it had not been.
“You took the law into your own hands, that is always incredibly stupid and the risks are borne out exactly by this case.”
He said Strickland had terrified the 14-year-old aiming to scare him to owning up or pointing out who had taken the money, when in fact he was entirely innocent.
He was in sheer terror by the time he was released but he accepted Strickland had acted out of character.
Guidelines for such a case would mean he would only spend a few weeks in custody at most and it was better for the community if he did unpaid work and gave his victim some compensation.
The judge said the £500 did not represent what the boy had gone through.
