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Shameless Amrik Gill, 26, who served half of an 18-month sentence, also thanked British taxpayers on Twitter “for making it possible”.
Referring to the length of a Twitter message, he went on “140 characters is like 18 months…not long enough.”
His comments provoked Tony Lloyd, Greater Manchester’s Police and Crime Commissioner, to hit out: “Gill had 140 characters – it’s a real shame he didn’t use them to apologise to his victims.”
And local councillor Norman Lewis fumed: “He’s just sticking his fingers up to the law and to society. Let’s hope if he carries on offending now he’s out of prison, he gets a longer sentence fit for purpose.”
Gill, of Chorlton, Manchester, was jailed after taking cash for football and concert tickets he did not have, leaving fans in the lurch. He admitted the offence, the latest in a string of convictions for ticket touting totalling thousands of pounds.
But the serial fraudster was released after nine months, half-way through the overall sentence, and aired his views on the social networking site.
He posted: “Just had the best holiday ever. Would like to thank the tax payer for making it possible.”
He added: “140 characters is like 18 months…not long enough.”
When Gill was contacted he said he was “being sarcastic”. He added on Twitter: “If you can sell papers on the back of a £25 fraudster’s sarcastic comment written on Twitter then fair play to you.” The tweets have now been deleted.
Latest figures from the Ministry of Justice say the average cost of each UK prisoner per year is £34,700.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: “The prison regime is tougher than it has been for years and we plan to keep it that way. Prisoners have to earn access to privileges, not simply through the avoidance of bad behaviour but also by working, taking part in education and engaging in their own rehabilitation.”
It’s not the first time Gill has used Twitter to air his views on the justice system. He has been jailed five times before for fraud offences.
Last year, when a judge gave him a “final chance”, Gill tweeted his local paper saying: “12 months suspended. Stick that on the front page of your evening news.”
