A MAN caused £5,000 of damage after smashing up a hotel in a drunken wrecking spree.

Romanian national, Michai Ichim, 36, had been in the country just a few months when he trashed the Campanile Hotel, in Miles Gray Road, Basildon, as he walked home from a night out at Festival Leisure Park.

Ichim was arrested at the scene, but when he woke up in a cell the next day, claimed he remembered nothing of the incident.

He was ordered to pay the hotel £4,000 compensation when he appeared at Basildon Magistrates’ Court on Friday.

The court heard hotel manager Vincent Billon was woken at 5.30am by the night porter, who told him someone was trying to break in to the hotel.

Mr Billon, who lives onsite, ran to the conference suite where he found all the windows had been smashed and Ichim clambering in through one of them.

Quick-thinking Mr Billon ran around the hotel to the fire exit – which had been left open – to try and stop Ichim getting further in to the building.

The court heard Mr Billon shoved his weight against the door as Ichim battered it with a fire extinguisher.

Ichim then climbed back out of one of the broken windows at which point Mr Billon realised he was very drunk.

Ichim ran around the building throwing patio furniture through five glass windows, screaming: “Let me in, let me in”, and swearing.

He then opened his trousers and made obscene gestures to Mr Billon.

Ichim was arrested and after a night in the cells told officers he did not usually drink, but had been to a barbecue and then a night out at Liquid nightclub at the Festival Leisure Park, where he had been buying very strong shots from barmaids on the dancefloor.

He admitted one count of criminal damage. In mitigation, Ichim, of Chantry Lane, Laindon, told the court had moved to the UK from Romania and was working to send money back to his wife and 20-year-old son.

He said he did not know how he ended up at the Campanile Hotel and was utterly ashamed of his actions.

In addition to the £4,000 compensation to the hotel, Ichim was told he must pay £85 court costs.