© Provided by National Post The Chinese national flag is raised in front of the Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People’s Court in Shanghai on March 23, 2010.

A man in China was sentenced to prison after kidnapping his own granddaughter and attempting to extort ransom money from his family to support his gambling addiction.

According to legal news outlet the Shanghai Law and Rule Journal where the kidnapping was first reported, the 65-year-old Shanghai resident, identified only as Yuan, began serving his sentence on April 18. It did not specify when the crime occurred.

Yuan’s orchestration of the kidnapping started when he picked his four-year-old granddaughter up from kindergarten and proceeded to take her out to eat and shop unbeknownst to her mother, the Journal stated.

The mother found her child missing once she arrived to collect her from school. She then received a message from Yuan, her father, demanding 500,000 yuan ($98,000).

“Take out 500,000 yuan in three days, or you’ll never see your precious daughter again!” Yuan told his daughter, the Journal detailed.

She called her father and pleaded with him to release her, with little success.

Yuan was then arrested after his daughter reported the incident to authorities. Police charged him with extortion and sent the kidnapper to the Xinshou Prison in Shanghai, the outlet reported.

In court, he objected to the charges, claiming the kidnapping should be considered a family dispute instead of a crime. Chinese courts may designate crimes within families as family affairs and not as legal matters.

The journal reported that Yuan had run up a gambling debt and was diagnosed with stomach cancer, making him desperate for ransom money. His wife had divorced him and, as a result of his addiction, he began neglecting his business.

While imprisoned, the grandfather began a hunger strike.

“I’m 65 years old, and my daughter still comes after me. She doesn’t want me to improve, she just wants me to die!” he repeated to authorities.

He ended his strike after receiving contact from him daughter and ex-wife, and is now cooperating with prison officials.