AN angry delivery driver allegedly abducted a beauty salon worker and drove her halfway across the city after complaining he wasn't getting help unloading his goods.
Thinh Kim Lam, 41, appeared in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court yesterday accused of hauling a terrified woman into the back of his delivery truck using the vehicle's hydraulic lifter.
The accused, from Blackett in Sydney's west, was delivering a large load of beauty products to Manly's Pro Nails and Waxing in September last year when an argument broke out with Thi My Nhung Tran, 44.
Lam became angry there was no one at the store to help him unload and told Ms Tran "the supplier has played games with me before", according a police statement tendered in court.
He then threatened to return the goods to the Lansvale-based supplier's warehouse.
Ms Tran was worried the salon wouldn't have the beauty products it needed to open the next day and told the driver that tradesmen working on the store could help unload.
She followed Lam to the back of his truck and stood on the tailgate but the driver allegedly used the hydraulic lifter to hoist her inside before shutting the doors and driving off with her.
The police statement said Ms Tran used her mobile phone to call her friends while allegedly imprisoned in the truck and they called police. Officers were on hand to arrest Lam when he arrived at the Lansvale factory about an hour later.
Police said the frightened Ms Tran was still "visibly upset" and crying when she was eventually released from the back of the truck.
Staff at the Manly salon told The Daily Telegraph that Ms Tran, who did not regularly work at the store, had been left traumatised by the experience and no longer came to help out at the premises.
Lam, who appeared in court accompanied by a Vietnamese translator, had previously pleaded guilty to falsely imprisoning the woman.
But yesterday his solicitor George Breton said Lam now wanted to alter his plea and needed more time to prepare his case ahead of a hearing.
Magistrate Jane Culver said Lam would be sentenced at the next court date if his plea change wasn't accepted.
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