A Liverpool man who daubted graffiti on a Thai landmark has been spared jail.
Lee Furlong admitted to defacing Tha Phae Gate monument in Chiang Mai last month in an offence which carried a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
Both the 23-year-old and Canadian tourist Brittney Schneider, also 23, were caught on CCTV spraying graffiti at the gate at around 4am on October 18.
Footage showed Furlong, who admitted last month that he was ‘really, really drunk’ when the incident occurred, spraying ‘Scouser Lee’ on the brickwork.
Prosecutors had warned that he and Schneider could face a decade behind bars and a financial penalty of one million Thai baht, equivalent to around £23,000.
But the pair instead received a reduced fine of 200,000 baht (£4,700 approx) and a two-year parole sentence after judges handed out a more lenient sentence.
Tha Phae Gate is one of five historical gates in Chiang Mai and parts of its origins in Thailand’s fourth-largest city dates back to the 13th century.