A MAN who arrived at a Wexford hotel in a wetsuit claiming that pirates had stolen his €100,000 yacht while on a voyage up the Irish coast had his prosecution for making false statements adjourned at a court hearing last week.

Marek Kucia, 38, a Polish national with an address in Mallow, Co Cork, claimed that when he arrived off the coast of Courtown in Co Wexford, two men boarded his yacht and took it in an act of piracy.

On 28 July last year, Kucia arrived at a hotel where, dressed in a wetsuit, he told his story in broken English and was brought to meet a translator at Gorey garda station.

In a separate incident in the same month, Kucia had made up a story of having his jet ski stolen by a gang of four men while visiting Lough Derg.

He later conceded that both stories were false.

In Gorey District Court earlier this year, Kucia admitted a charge of making a false statement tending to show an offence had been committed at Gorey garda station and to giving false information and that he had made a false statement in Killaloe garda station in Co Clare.

At a sitting in February, his solicitor said Kucia had told him his family owed €50,000 to the Polish mafia but added that he did not know if this was true.

Kucia, who has no previous convictions, has lived in Ireland for five years and has a wife and a 14-year-old son.

He had worked for some time as a truck driver and is currently completing a Fás computer course.

His solicitor said that he had suffered from psychiatric difficulties in the past and recommended that he be sent for an assessment.

Psychiatric reports were submitted last week and the court head that Kucia was very remorseful for his actions.

Judge Donnchadh O'Buac­halla had remanded the defendant on continuing bail until the production of a probation report last week.

The case was adjourned again last week ahead of sentencing.