The arrest was conducted by the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the Royal Thai Police and was announced on its official Facebook pages on Thursday (May 9).

The exact date of the arrest was not disclosed by the CIB, but the conflict that led to the charges occurred in 2022, when the British man, identified only as Alexander, was staying at some rental accommodation in Phuket.

According to the CIB report, the most convenient path to his room passed through an Italian restaurant, which Alexander preferred to use. The conflict began after the restaurant owner requested that Alexander use the main route to avoid disturbing diners.

At some stage later, the owner of the venues noticed that his restaurant’s rating on Google plummeted from 4.9 stars to 3.1 stars due to a slew of new 1-star reviews. Suspecting foul play, the owner accused Mr Alexander and filed a complaint with the police.

The CIB has not specified whether Mr Alexander was a tourist or an expatriate resident. However, he was recently arrested in Bangkok based on the restaurant owner’s complaint and charged with “entering false information into a computer system in a way that is likely to cause damage to others but which is not an offence of defamation according to the Criminal Code.”

Following his arrest, Alexander was taken to Sakhu Police Station in the northern part of Phuket.