Coach driver set fire to Germans' towels for 'bagging' all the sunbeds

A coach driver became so fed up with German tourists bagging every sunbed that he set fire to all their towels.

Glyn Bowden, 55, was locked up by police in Italy after his early morning raid.

Mr Bowden was coach driver for a party of 55 British holidaymakers at Viana Marina near San Remo on the Italian Riviera.

He told yesterday how the German tourists put their towels on the best sunbeds on the private beach and by a nearby pool.

He twice took the towels away and left them on the side of the pool - but on the third day set fire to them.

Mr Bowden spent two hours in the cells at a local police station before hotel bosses persuaded officers to release him without charge.

The first time the group from South Wales complained to him, he said "Leave it to me" and dumped all of the towels at the end of the pool.

Mr Bowden said: "The following morning the Germans put them down even earlier so I did the same - with them shaking their fists at me from their windows.

"The next morning about 20 towels were there again so I collected them up, put them on a pile on the beach - and lit them. All the British tourists were cheering. But just a few minutes afterwards three police officers turned up and arrested me.

"They were going to charge me with criminal damage but the hotel - which owned the towels -intervened on my behalf."

Mr Bowden, from Tonyrefail, near Rhondda, added: "The Germans thought they owned the private beach but I wanted to make sure my tourists got a crack of the whip."

His extreme action seemed to have worked - the Germans' towels did not reappear for the rest of the holiday.