Wellington - Chinese immigrant Deqiong Deng, 25, was sentenced Tuesday to nine years in prison for kidnapping a 5-year-old girl outside her home and holding her for 500,000 New Zealand dollars (300,000 US dollars) ransom.

The Auckland High Court was told that Cina Ma was found bound and gagged in a wardrobe of a nearby house, four days after a balaclava- clad Deng snatched her as she played in the street in July 2008 in Albany.

Deng, who pleaded guilty saying he owed 1 million New Zealand dollars on two houses he was developing and 200,000 New Zealand dollars to his parents in China, will serve a minimum five-and-a-half years.

Judge Judith Potter told him it was a cowardly and cruel act that had left the child with post-traumatic stress disorder and prompted her family to leave New Zealand.

She said a long sentence was necessary to deter others from a crime that was too prevalent in New Zealand.