THE company boss who frogmarched an employee to the police for allegedly stealing said the resulting court case had been “a big waste of time and money all round”.

Simon Cremer, the owner of In-house flooring in Witham, was one of the four defendants to appear at Colchester Magistrates’ Court on Thursday for unlawfully imprisoning his former employee Mark Gilbert in September.

Mr Cremer, of Gestingthorpe Road, Little Maplestead, said he thought he was making a citizen’s arrest when he tied the hands of Mr Gilbert, of Nayland Road, Colchester, and marched him down Newland Street to the police station wearing a sign claiming he had stolen £845.

It was Mr Cremer, 44, a father-of-two, his brother Andrew Cremer, David White and Reece Bennett who were taken to court while Mr Gilbert received a police caution.

Mr Cremer said while they were “happy” with the court’s decision to bind them over, they were “disappointed” Mr Gilbert only received a caution. He said: “We are pleased with how we have been treated. We think it’s a fair result, but it’s all because Mr Gilbert got away very lightly with his caution.”

He now admits that taking the law into his own hands was wrong, but said: “If we had called the police, what would’ve happened?”

Mr Cremer said he had to move his business from Maldon Road, in Witham, to Eastways Industrial Estate as his landlord gave notice because of his actions.

He said his brother, who owns aquatic centre Oriental Waters in Maldon Road, had also been given notice to move by the same landlord, which was likely to lead to the closure of the business after nine years.

He said Andrew could not find an alternative location in Witham and thought the cost of moving may be too great.

Mr Cremer said: “I do feel for him. None of us obviously on the day realised anything like this was going to happen. We had no indication it was going to go this far.” His brother said: “You try to do the right thing and my life has been turned upside down because of it. And I have nothing more to say.”

Before the case went to court, Mr Gilbert said he was hoping for some sort of compensation from Mr Cremer for the “pain” and “embarrassment” he had been caused.

Simon Cremer said he had been contacted by Mr Gilbert’s solicitor about a civil case, but Mr Gilbert told him on Thursday he had not yet made his mind up.

Mr Gilbert was unavailable for comment.

The landlord was also unavailable for comment.