RETIRED SECOND ROW Craig Clarke, who captained Connacht during the 2013/14 season before being forced to quit the game due to concussion, today told a New Zealand court how thieves held him at gunpoint while he drove a car chased by police.
In May last year, the 33-year-old stopped to help two men who waved him down on a roadside in Taranaki, as Stuff.co.nz report.
However, the men were actually in the midst of a getaway from an antique store robbery. And having abandoned the original vehicle, Daryl Ross O’Connell held a gun to Clarke and demanded he drive them to the town of Normanby.
Clarke, who captained the Chiefs to a Super Rugby title and Taranaki to a Ranfurly Shield, told police that he pleaded with O’Connell, saying: ”I’ve got a couple of kids at home.”
The two men were apprehended shortly after running from Clarke’s vehicle in Normanby. The jewellery stolen from the antique store, where a 72-year-old woman was working alone, was recovered from O’Connell’s original getaway vehicle.
Judge Chris Sygrove handed down a sentence of four years and three months to O’Connell, finding him guilty of robbery, kidnapping and dangerous driving.
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