The businessman wanted in connection with the death of his girlfriend in a Paris hotel was arrested in woods in Cheshire yesterday.

Ian Griffin, 39, had been living rough in a tent in woodland at Chelford, near Macclesfield, and was detained by officers acting on a tip-off from the public. Police had been looking for him for a week after the battered body of Kinga Legg, 36, was found in a room at the Hotel Bristol in Paris.

A spokesman for Cheshire Police said: “We have arrested a 39-year-old man in connection with the French murder investigation. He was arrested in woodland at Chelford, Macclesfield, at around 3.30pm. At this stage it would appear this man has been living rough in a tent.”

It emerged yesterday that Mr Griffin’s friends had told police that Ms Legg had fitted a tracking device to her boyfriend’s car.

Ms Legg was “obsessively controlling” of Mr Griffin and attached the tracker to his Porsche 911 while she was on a business trip to her native Poland, the friends said. Mr Griffin, 39, found the device and then commissioned a sweep of the couple’s home in Oxshott, Surrey, during which a number of other listening devices were found.

Police also confirmed last night that the couple had both been arrested in October last year after a disturbance at their £4 million home during which Ms Legg lunged at Mr Griffin with a knife. The Times reported yesterday that Mr Griffin telephoned Tracy Baker, his former girlfriend, last Tuesday night. He did not tell her that Ms Legg was dead but said they had had a “massive fight” during which she fired a stun gun, leaving him with wounds and bruises on his arms and legs. Her naked and battered body was later found by a chambermaid.

Before his arrest yesterday, Mr Griffin, who made and lost millions of pounds running a string of tanning salons and technology businesses, had not been heard from since that call, although there have been several sightings of him in Britain.

He tried to collect a speedboat from Shepperton Marina on the Thames last Wednesday and returned to the property in Oxshott to collect clothing and other items. His car was found close to his parents’ home in Cheshire late last week.

Surrey Police searched the couple’s home again yesterday and sources said that officers took away a crossbow. Ms Legg ran a business selling farm produce to supermarket chains and she and Mr Griffin, who had been together for little more than a year, had a lavish lifestyle with yachting holidays and champagne parties.

Friends have claimed that the relationship was turbulent. Ms Legg and Mr Griffin were prone to anxiety and bouts of depression, drank heavily and became reliant on antidepressants and sleeping pills. Their arguments, it is alleged, frequently erupted into violence with Ms Legg exhibiting jealousy and possessiveness. In April, she is said to have punched him in the face, cutting him just above the eye, because he arrived home late. In October last year another argument ended with Ms Legg lunging at Mr Griffin with a knife before he called police.

A Surrey Police spokesman said: “We can confirm that we were called to an address in Oxshott in October 2008 following a domestic incident. A male and female were arrested at the scene.”

It is understood that Mr Griffin later dropped the allegation because he did not want her to face a criminal charge. He accepted a police caution for assault.

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