A British rancher in Brazil has accused his wife of kidnapping him before sending him to an illegal rehab after he refused to pay for her family to fly out to visit them over Christmas.

A British rancher in Brazil has accused his wife of kidnapping him before sending him to an illegal rehab after he refused to pay for her family to fly out to visit them over Christmas.

Robert Witchell, 59, was locked up for a month before he could escape the clinic in Caldas Novas, Goias State. 

He told detectives he had been window shopping shortly before Christmas when he was snatched off the street by four men, who bundled him into the back of a car.

He was then driven 90 minutes to the Novo Dia, or New Day, a drugs rehab clinic, and locked up until police rescued him on 22nd January.

Witchell said he was told his wife had signed the order for his detention in the ‘private prison’ because of his drinking.

In reality, he told police, they had fallen out when he refused to pay to have her entire family flown in to spend Christmas with them.

He said: ‘I was outside a shop close to my ranch. I was talking to a friend of mine when four people approached me and three of them grabbed me by my arms and by the legs.

‘They said: “You’re coming to the clinic. You have problems with your drinking, blah blah blah, you have to come with us.”’

Wife “kidnaps her husband and locks him up in “private prison” after he refused to fly her family out to visit�over�Christmas

Witchell said he told them: ‘I’m not going anywhere with you. It’s a kidnap.’

He said they replied: ‘We have had a call. We are authorised to take you by force.’

Witchell was then allegedly physically lifted and bundled into the back of a car and driven for 90 minutes to the clinic.