British tourist spared jail in Thailand after spraying 'Scouser Lee' on ancient gate

Vandalising an ancient site carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison

A British tourist who spray-painted an ancient wall in northern Thailand has been spared jail.

Lee Furlong admitted daubing the words "Scouser Lee" onto Tha Phae Gate, a historic landmark in Chiang Mai province, police said.

The charge of vandalising an ancient site carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison and a one million Thai baht (£23,500) fine.

But the 23-year-old from Liverpool was given two years on parole and was fined 200,000 Thai baht. The BBC reported Furlong was permitted to leave the country.

A Canadian woman, Brittney Lorretta Katherine Schneider, also 23, was released after spraying her first initial onto the gate.

Supt Teerasak Sriprasert, a local police chief in Chiang Mai said judges "agreed to give them a chance".

The police officer had previously said Mr Furlong told officers he was "a little bit drunk" at the time

CCTV footage published by Thai media showed four people approaching the gate in the early hours of 18 October.

Two of the group approached the wall and one began to vandalise it.

Furlong and Schneider were arrested the following day, and taken to the site where they reportedly showed where they had spray-painted the wall.

Two others in the group seen in the video were not arrested.

The 13th century Tha Pae Gate is part of a historic wall that forms a square around Chiang Mai's inner city.