Clubbers fool world media with false claims of Syrian boat misadventure

Three Britons working in Cyprus as nightclub reps have tricked the international media into reporting an unlikely tale of a wild night out that ended with a boat trip from clubland in Ayia Napa to war-torn Syria, the group's ringleader has told Middle East Eye.

Dozens of media outlets, including the Daily Mail Online, The Mirror, News Corp Australia, The Telegraph and ITV News, reported the improbable tale of how Lewis Ellis, 25, Alex McCormick, 19, and James Wallman, had travelled hundreds of miles to the Syrian port of Tartus after boarding the wrong boat for a dolphin-watching excursion following a night on the tiles.

The men claimed the error happened after a night out clubbing on the island, but posted no images of the Syrian port, where there is a major Russian naval presence, or the military police they claimed had briefly detained them.

And now Ellis, a former marketing student from Manchester, has admitted to MEE that the stunt was carried out for "fun" and to expose a "serious point about the media".

In an interview conducted over social media, he went on to say that the three friends, who had initially claimed that they thought they were going on a dolphin-watching trip but got on the wrong boat, were looking “to reveal all” to a media outlet “dependent on fee”.

His comments are in stark contrast to an interview he reportedly gave the Daily Mirror newspaper earlier on Wednesday. He said: "The last club closed at 7.30am so we just powered through to our 9am boat trip and ended up blagging our way on to the wrong boat.

"We were wearing boardshorts, hungover, looking like we were ready for a boat party."

The Mirror's article on the prank was headlined: "Brit lads in Ayia Napa 'blag way onto boat trip after clubbing - and end up in SYRIA'.

Ellis also reportedly gave an interview to news.com.au in which he hinted at the far-fetched nature of the story. He reportedly said: "It’s the most f**king ridiculous story, isn’t it? We went to watch f**king dolphins and we ended up in f**king Syria."

He added: "After hours and hours we turned up in this place and we were like, 'What the f***, where are we?"

Reporters at numerous titles seem to have accepted the story on face value and not questioned the apparent ease with which the men claimed to have entered a Russian military base or their subsequent claimed release. However others on social media immediately picked up on inconsistencies in their story.

Ellis has a history of pranks. In February, he was escorted out of a shopping centre in Manchester, England after he went swimming in a food court pool.