A SMIRKING YouTuber has admitted making a fake video of a shark at Hove beach in a childish prank to scare tourists away from the city.

Ty Coates paid to have the "poor quality" fake made to try and convince people that "Jaws 3 is happening on their very own beach".

He confessed to spending almost three years dreaming up his little hoax and bragged that visitors were "going to be gone, all because of me".

Ty spent "a long time searching" for someone to make the phoney clip, coughing up £37.62 for the fake footage that he then shared online.

In the video, Ty can be heard gasping dramatically and saying “oh my god” while pretending to film a creature circling in the shallows.

He went to elaborate lengths to get clicks and likes online, distributing the clip via TikTok and other social media channels.

The Argus reported that the "shark" video had gone viral, interviewing Ty who lied to our reporter, providing a false account of what he had seen.

We have since spoken to experts who dismissed the footage as a fake and rubbished its quality.

Time-wasting Ty posted a 13-minute confession on YouTube which has received little more than 1,000 views.

During the video, full of fake news footage, he talks about trying to "find whereabouts in England had a beach" before targeting Brighton and Hove.

The Argus: The time waster paid almost £40 for the fake video to be madeThe time waster paid almost £40 for the fake video to be made

He said: "The city where many tourists come to visit, well not for long after they find out Jaws 3 is happening on their very own beach.

"They're all going to be gone, all because of me."

He explained how he used clips of the seafront and stock footage of a shark, paying to have the video made using special effects.

Ty, who only has 118 subscribers on YouTube, said: "I wasn't trying to spend no stupid prices on this.

"Then I found the advert for a guy who is charging £37.62.

"After a long time of searching, I found the perfect guy for the job.

"Now that the order is complete, all I have to do is sit around and wait."

Ty claimed to have been with a friend at Hove Lawns at 7pm on Friday April 30 when he spotted the animal lurking amid the breaking waves.

The Argus showed the footage to a film and wildlife experts who dismissed it as fake.

David Neale, company director and cinematographer at Wild Stag Studios in Brighton, said: "Even though the video quality is poor, you can tell the shark moves too smoothly through the water.

“That smooth movement, for me, would be evidence that the video is fake.”

For all his efforts, Ty managed to get "interviewed by BBC and The Argus and put onto basically every meme page in the UK".

His video clip was rubbished by the experts at Sussex Dolphin Project.

Thea Taylor, project lead, told The Argus: "The video is unlikely to be genuine for a variety of reasons, including the unnatural movement, the ease at which the animal is swimming at such shallow depths, the lack of water movement when the animal is changing course and the lack of evidence to support likely species being in this area, at this time of year and this close to shore."

According to the Shark Trust, there are 21 species of shark in UK waters all year round but it is unlikely to see one during a trip to the beach.