A club rep who claimed he accidentally ended up in Syria following a holiday night out with his mates has admitted he made it all up.
Lewis Ellis, 25, said he ended up in the war-torn country with pals Alex McCormick, 19, and James Wallman, 23, after a night out in Ayia Napa, Cyprus.
Ellis, who has a Master's degree in Marketing from the University of Chester , reckoned that he and his two friends boarded what they thought was a dolphin-watching boat, only to be met by baffled Russian military police in Tartus – just 50 miles from the battle-scarred Syrian city of Homs.
The story was picked up by media outlets across the world after pictures of the three friends, claiming to be in Syria, were posted on Snapchat.
However, Lewis has now told pals on Facebook that he made the story up.
He replied to a friend on Facebook saying: “Hahaha what a prank."
The friend replied with: “So u didn’t get on wrong boat.”
To which Lewis, who is from Manchester, said: “Naaa we just made it up for fun."
Lewis has a YouTube channel dedicated to internet pranks and was previously filmed going for a swim in the pool at Manchester's Trafford Centre food court.
He is known as LostBoyLewis on his YouTube channel, and admits to being 'childish' and wanting to have fun.
He said: "The idea of this channel is just being childish.
"The name Lost Boy Lewis is obviously because the Lost Boys are Peter Pan who never grew up and they always stayed young.
"It’s going to be about being childish and about having as much fun as physically possible."
Under one of his videos, he replied to a follower four months ago saying; “I dunno how to keep in the news but I’ll do something big soon and see if it gains traction."
Ellis works in marketing but is in Ayia Napa as a club rep this summer, according to the BBC.
