PHUKET: Officials on Phuket hope to double the number of security cameras around Patong, a meeting was told this week.

The news comes as security camera footage caught out an Australian tourist, Stevie Bamford, who lied to Patong police and was senteced to 15 days in jail on Friday.

Wat Patchasit, a security computer officer from Patong municipality, told a meeting earlier in the week at Provincial Hall in Phuket City that Patong had 31 security cameras - mostly around the popular Soi Bangla tourist walking street.

It was hoped that another 30 could be purchased before the next Phuket tourism high season, beginning in November. Some of the existing cameras did not produce footage of good quality, he said.

Pimpa Sokreuang, of Patong council's finance department, said the 30 new cameras would cost about 25 million baht to install and the points would be selected on advice from Kathu Police Station, which oversees Patong.

''Tourists need to feel comfortable and safe on Phuket,'' she said.

Lieutenant Nikon Chootong said if the finances could be found, police would like to see more cameras around Bangla Road, Samkor Road, the route from Patong to Kata-Karon, Nanai Road and the ''gateway'' route to Phuket City over Patong Hill.

Pressure for the need for more security cameras is likely to intensify after 21-year-old Bamford, from Sydney, confessed and was punished after telling police in long interview sessions that she had been raped by a Patong tuk-tuk driver and two accomplices.

Security camera footage shown to Bamford on Thursday night proved she was lying. Phuket police will have Bamford deported after she completes her sentence at Bang Jo detention centre, in a rural part of eastern Phuket where fruit and vegetables for Phuket Prison inmates are grown.