A former estate agency manager from Sale has avoided jail after posting a racist comment on social media following the Euro 2020 final.

Andrew Bone, 41, who worked for Savills, was sacked by the company in September 2021 after posting a racist tweet about black England footballers following their Euro 2020 final defeat to Italy at Wembley Stadium. He had initially been suspended two months earlier, days after the incident.

The vile Tweet, published shortly after England’s Euros defeat to Italy at Wembley Stadium in July, had said: “N****** ruined it for us”.

The hateful tweet was directed at England players Bukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford. Bone removed the comment minutes after posting it, but it had been reposted by others and reported to his employer, Savills.

Members of the public reported Bone’s post to the police and he was arrested three days later on 14 July.

Bone originally claimed that his Twitter account was hacked and called for police to investigate after Savills suspended him.

Bone went on to plead not guilty at court and a trial was fixed for 31 October last year.

The investigation continued, uncovering previous social media posts and cell site data which showed the device used to post the comment was in the same location as Bone.

The court granted an application made by the CPS to allow those prior hateful comments on social media to be used as bad character evidence at the trial.

Having seen the strength of the evidence against him, Bone pleaded guilty in November 2024 at Manchester Magistrates’ Court and was sentenced yesterday.

Bone wept in the dock as he was sentenced to six weeks in prison, suspended for a year, and ordered to undertake 15 rehabilitation activity days.

Bone was also told to pay a total of £1,054, made up of a £154 victim surcharge, £400 in prosecution costs, and a £500 contribution to the police investigation.

Sentencing, deputy district judge Barnett said Bone’s Tweet was “clearly motivated by hostility based on race”, but added that “it was a single tweet that was deleted relatively quickly”.

Bone wiped tears from his eyes as he was told he would not be going to prison. He declined to speak outside court when approached by reporters.