Kevin McGeever, the 69-year-old businessman who claimed he had been in captivity for eight months, was still being held in Gort Garda Station, Co Galway, today following his arrest earlier yesterday.

It is understood that Mr McGeever was being questioned on suspicion of making a report that wasted Garda time. He was detained under section 4 of the 1984 Criminal Justice Act, which allowed him to be held for up to 24 hours.

Mr McGeever was found wandering barefoot and wearing a plastic bag on a road between Swanlinbar and Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, on January 29th last. He was reported to have lost several stone in weight and to have been in a dishevelled and disoriented state, with the word “thief” marked in ink on his forehead.

He claimed to have been kidnapped from his home in Craughwell, east Galway, at gunpoint on May 27th last year and to have been held in a container for eight months and beaten. His partner had reported him missing in the same month.

He was taken for treatment to the regional hospital in Mullingar but left before giving a full account to gardaí of what had occurred to him.

His brother Brendan McGeever told RTÉ’s John Murray show last month that the businessman had been held in a dark room, had received threats to his life on several occasions and had been physically abused by his captors.

He also dismissed as “nonsense” speculation about Russian mafia links to his brother’s reported abduction.