For a man who insists that he is not in hiding, Walter Dominy lives a long way off the beaten track. Holed up in an 18th-century cottage on the edge of a tiny French village the 71-year-old former businessman was thrust into the media spotlight last week after his daughter claimed that he had faked his death at sea 15 years ago to escape creditors and has been living on fraudulent state benefits ever since.

The Times tracked him down to Bagnac-sur-Célé, two hours north of Toulouse, to address the allegations that have prompted an investigation by the Northern Ireland Executive into his state benefits and calls for him to be arrested and returned to Britain.

Mr Dominy admitted that he disappeared after boarding a ferry in 1993 and left a note saying that he could not go on. But he added that the police had been wrong to assume that he had committed suicide. He also admitted leaving debts behind from a failed business but felt no guilt because they were in the hundreds of pounds, not hundreds of thousands, he claimed.

He rejected allegations that he had been claiming benefits in the name of a dead man who was once his friend, saying that he had only ever claimed money from his own pension.

“I am not a crook, I am not a criminal, I am not trying to hide. I can’t believe my daughter said this. It is very, very sad. I want this interest in me to stop,” he said.

Mr Dominy’s family trace his troubles back to the collapse of his printing business in Verwood, Dorset, in the late 1980s. He then moved with his wife Margaret and four children to Kilkenny, in Ireland, but again had to close down his business.

In October 1993 he disappeared after boarding a ferry from Rosslare to Fishguard. Police found his red Ford Fiesta van on the car deck with his passport, keys and a note addressed to his wife saying, among other things: “I can’t go on.”

The case of Mr Dominy follows that of John Darwin, known as the “canoe man”, who has been accused of faking his death in 2002 so that he could benefit from insurance policies.

Speaking with a hint of a Hampshire accent Mr Dominy said that he disappeared because he was very stressed by his business worries. “I am a proud man and didn’t want to let the family down. And that’s why I left that night. I just walked off the ferry. I was very stressed with the situation at the time and needed a little time to myself. I did not intend to commit suicide,” he said in his first interview.

“There was a note but it was a note to Margaret saying that I was leaving for a little time to clear my head. It was no suicide note. It was more of a love letter,” he said.

Despite his claims, police believed that it was a suicide note and informed his family that he was dead. His daughter said that they were all traumatised, especially Mrs Dominy. But Mr Dominy expressed no regrets. He claimed that he began a new life in Liverpool, working cash-in-hand jobs, oblivious to the hurt that he had caused at home.

A year after disappearing he contacted his wife, he said. When he moved back to Ireland, Lorna, his daughter, claimed that she and the rest of the children were asked to conceal his return from the authorities, close friends and family members, including his sister. She said that her father began claiming benefits in Belfast.

When he was asked why he had failed to tell the police, the Inland Revenue and the coastguard, which spent thousands of pounds searching for his body, that he was alive, Mr Dominy answered bluntly: “It is nothing to do with the police.”

When it comes to the most serious allegations made by The Sun that he had claimed benefits in his own name and that of Jim Kealy, a former acquaintance who is now dead, he claimed never to have heard the name before.

“That is wrong. I don’t know the name at all,” he said as he concluded a bizarre interview in which he shouted answers to questions put by The Times to his son Troy over a telephone.

Mr and Mrs Dominy, who have been married for 44 years, retired to their French cottage two years ago. According to their son they venture outside rarely.

Since news of Mr Dominy’s troubles emerged locals have bristled with excitement. Outside the only newsagent in the village, where an article from a French newspaper about Mr Dominy was on display, Nadia Lebas, 34, said that many had wondered who the couple and their son were and what they were doing there.

“This is not a place for the English. Of course everyone was curious when this couple moved here. They would come and buy cigarettes and then disappear. This story has got us talking. We like the excitement,” she said.

Bagnac-sur-Célé

—Population 1,700

—Location It lies in a mainly tourist-free area between the vineyards of the Lot Valley and the peaks of the Pyrenees, two hours north of Toulouse

—The oldest bridge in the three-road village was built in the Middle Ages. It allowed passengers and pilgrims from Auvergne to cross the River Célé

—The livestock trade with Italy has survived various export problems and continues to be an important source of income in the area

—Dance classes for the locals take place every Wednesday

Source: www.bagnac.fr, Times database

Times Recommends

• 6 reasons not to give gifts this Christmas
• Remembrance Day: All the lonely heroes