A British husband was rescued after his wife allegedly had him kidnapped and locked up at a drug rehabilitation centre in Brazil.

Robert Witchell, 59, said his Brazillian wife was mad when he refused to fund her relatives' trip so they could visit over Christmas on December 15.

The Brit claimed he thought everything had been sorted out until four men had suddenly bundled him up into the back of a car while window shopping and driven for 90 minutes to Novo Dia Clinic in Caldas Novas Goias State until police rescued him on January 22.

Footage shows Robert speaking to an officer as he detailed how he was taken and detained against his will at the clinic in an interview on January 24.

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

He added one of the men said: that he had to come to the clinic as he had problems with drinking, to which he replied ‘I'm not going anywhere with you. It's a kidnap.'

However, the men claimed they were authorised to take him ‘as they have had a call.'

He added: ‘They put me there and locked me in a room. My wife had signed the authorisation to put me in there, I think, over an argument we had at Christmas.'

He claimed his wife wanted her family to come, but Robert said he couldn't afford to pay for it.

He said: ‘Then all of a sudden I've got these people kidnaping me.'

Rober was rescued when he accessed a computer at the clinic and sent his friend an email asking for help.

His friend called the police and raided Novo Dia Clinic, which had since been shut down following investigations.

Its manager, unidentified by authorities, has been charged with kidnapping and false imprisonment.

A Goias police statement from January 24 said: ‘The Englishman was rescued from the clinic after reporting the irregularities via e-mail, claiming that around 30 days ago he had been kidnapped by four men, supposedly employees of the clinic, and that since then he had been kept in prison.

'In an interview with the victim, he reported that around December 15, his wife asked him for a large amount of money.

'Faced with his refusal, his partner, without judicial authorisation, hired a clinic in Caldas Novas, which kidnapped him, coerced him, and kept him in a private prison.'

Investigations are still ongoing and the wife's identity was withheld by authorities.