This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

Singapore is seeking to extradite a British man accused of spray-painting a subway carriage last month.

A court has issued an arrest warrant for Lloyd Dane Alexander for allegedly breaking into a train depot and vandalising a subway carriage on 16 May with Oliver Fricker, a Swiss national, the Singapore police force said today.

Singapore has a reputation for meting out severe punishments for relatively minor crimes. Vandalism carries a maximum fine of SG$2,000 (£980) or up to three years in jail, in addition to three to eight strokes of a wooden cane.

Police said Alexander has fled Singapore and authorities will seek to extradite him, depending on the extradition treaty Singapore has with the country where he is eventually located. Officers did not give details of Alexander's age, profession or possible whereabouts.

The Straits Times reported that the Briton had left the country for Hong Kong before the incident was reported to police on 19 May.

Fricker, 33, was charged with trespassing into a protected place and two charges of vandalism on Saturday. He is currently on bail, with a preliminary hearing set for 21 June.

The two men are alleged to have cut through the fence of the SMRT rail depot before spray-painting graffiti on one side of a train.

Singapore caned American teenager Michael Fey for vandalism in 1994 – ignoring pleas for leniency by then US president Bill Clinton – in a case that drew international attention to the country's harsh punishments.