HONG KONG - A man from the Chinese mainland has been jailed for 12 years by the High Court of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for conspiring to kidnap the heiress of a Hong Kong clothing empire last year in order to procure a ransom, local media reported on Thursday.

Zheng Xingwang, 30, pleaded guilty to the charge on Tuesday, with Justice Kevin Zervos describing the crime as "shocking" and "deserving of a severe punishment," according to the RTHK.

The court heard that six men, wearing masks and gloves, broke into Queenie Law's family home in Sai Kung in the early hours of April 25 last year and tied her and her boyfriend up. They then forced Law to give them the combination numbers of the safes, from which they took jewellery.

She was then blindfolded and taken away, and her boyfriend was told to relay what had happened to her parents.

Law was taken to an isolated cave, where she was asked about her father's background and told to jot down his phone number. They then called him, demanding 58 million HK dollars as ransom and warned that Law would be killed if they were not paid.

The ransom was later lowered to 28 million HK dollars and was delivered in brown envelopes to a public toilet in Fei Ngo Shan on April 28. Law was then released.