Gardaí question three in connection with fake kidnapping

Gardaí are questioning two men and a woman in connection with a fake kidnapping and attempted extortion.

The scam was uncovered following a garda operation in Dublin and Drogheda on Wednesday

The son of a businessman tried to stage his own kidnapping in a bid to get €50,000 from his father.

The man's girlfriend told the father that his son had left their house that morning but had not been seen since.

She showed him a photograph of the young man with a sawn-off shotgun being held to his head.

Members of the Emergency Response Unit and the National Surveillance unit were then alerted.

However, gardaí became suspicious and a number of undercover units later found the alleged victim and an accomplice in a car parked in a laneway in Tallaght.

Both were arrested and taken to Tallaght garda station.

The man's girlfriend was arrested yesterday and is being held in Drogheda.