A stonemason who will receive an undisclosed sum after winning a High Court action against the State said last night he was "a happy man now that my name is cleared".
Mr Martin Cadden spoke as he was travelling home from Dublin to Ballydoogan, Magheraboy, Co Sligo. He had taken a case for false imprisonment and slander after an incident involving a lost wallet.
Over a two-day hearing the High Court heard that Mr Cadden (40) had found a wallet containing $2,000 in cash, $2,000 in travellers' cheques, and credit cards on the side of a road on August 15th, 1996.
He rang a local radio station and the gardai in Sligo town to report the find. The gardai told him no such wallet had been reported missing, and he left his mobile phone number with them.
Some hours later, when Mr Cadden was at work in a local cemetery, gardai came to arrest him for an offence described as "larceny by finding". They took him to the station, where they told a couple waiting there, "We got the man with your wallet."
Mr Cadden sued for damages for libel, slander, battery and false imprisonment. The defence denied the claim.
Last night he would not disclose the amount he will receive in settlement and costs.
Asked if he could understand the events now, Mr Cadden said: "I don't know why they behave like that. I feel they made a booboo and a serious one.
"I always felt I hadn't done anything wrong . . .The chapter is closed now as far as I am concerned."
A Department of Justice spokesman said it would not comment on an individual case.