An indoor swimming pool in New Zealand has been plagued by the poo scandal for five weeks in a row with the culprit choosing Friday evenings to leave their mark.

AN indoor swimming centre in New Zealand has been under attack, from a serial pool pooper.

The Invercargill’s Splash Palace swimming pool has been plagued by the poo scandal for five weeks in a row with the culprit choosing Friday evenings to leave their mark, according to The Southland Times.

And city council aquatic services manager Pete Thompson said the ongoing incident had cost the pool “tens of thousands of dollars” in lost revenue.

“It generally happens after 5pm each Friday night,” Thompson said.

Each time a poo was discovered the pool had to be closed for about six hours for cleaning.

“They did one in the leisure pool and we moved the kids to the learners’ pool, and they did one in the learners’ pool and we moved the kids to the main pool, and one appeared in the main pool, so we had to shut the whole thing down,” Mr Thompson said.

“In one of those pools was diarrhoea ... that was unfortunate.”

Thompson said it appeared the defectation was deliberate but that if the culprit was caught, the council would have to prove the person acted deliberately in order to claim the cleaning costs.

Signs have now gone up in the centre warning people not to swim if they had upset stomachs.

Pool staff were narrowing down the culprit, or culprits, Thompson said.

“There are certain sports groups which use the facility at that time of the day.”

“If we do manage to, dare I say, catch someone in the act, we will seek compensation.”