THE Irish tourist caught carving his name on a wall at Auschwitz is set to escape with a suspended sentence and a small fine.

The unnamed Irishman, 38, made global headlines last month when he was caught by security scratching his initials in one of the Nazi death camp’s bunkhouses with a coin.

He was taken to a police station in the nearby town of Oświęcim in Poland, where he admitted the offence, saying he thought it was okay because there was other graffiti there too.

The man was released and allowed to return to Ireland while prosecutors considered his case.

He had faced up to 10 years in prison for damaging a building of special cultural interest.

However, prosecutor Mariusz Słomka said on Thursday that the man has agreed to a one year suspended sentence with a fine of 1,000 zloty (€233) going to the Auschwitz museum.

The deal is expected to be rubber stamped by the courts over the coming weeks.

The incident is the latest in a string of anti-social incidents at the death camp, where more than 1.1 million people were murdered by the Nazis during World War II.

In March, an Israeli visitor was caught urinating on the stairs between two of the largest crematoria where bodies were burnt.

Employees say tourists increasingly try to take souvenirs with them and two Hungarians were recently found trying to remove bricks from the site.

In 2016, two Portuguese teenagers each received two year suspended sentences and 1,000 zloty fines after carving their names on brick walls.

Polish authorities also had to warn people that public displays of fascism carry a two year jail term when pictures emerged of three girls giving the Hitler salute outside the front gates.