The Provincial Court confirmed today that Bamford appeared before a judge yesterday, admitted the offence and was sentenced to 30 days, automatically halved because of her guilty plea.
Bamford, daughter of Australian rugby league great Peter Tunks, originally claimed that she had been raped in a tuk-tuk by three men in the early hours of June 10, in Patong.
Police, in a bid to identify her supposed attackers, examined CCTV footage but found that she had been nowhere near a tuk-tuk.
Shown the CCTV evidence, Bamford then admitted that she had concocted her story to placate her “hot headed” boyfriend. The two had argued earlier in the evening and gone their separate ways.
Worried that he would be angry when she returned to their hotel after he did, she had concocted the rape story to win his sympathy.
Bamford was originally sentenced on June 15, but was allowed out on bail, reportedly B50,000, while she employed a lawyer to advise her on whether to appeal the sentence.
Yesterday, however, she dropped the appeal and was taken straight to Bang Jo to begin her sentence.
The Bang Jo facility is a much softer option than the badly overcrowded Phuket Provincial Prison, which is used to incarcerate hardened or violent criminals.