She added: “The number of stag parties in Riga is an issue and their have been heightened relations between the British visitors and the local population.” She added that it’s not always the Latvians who are at fault: “we’ve had problems such as British visitors urinating on the Freedom Monument.”

Stewart says it’s also an issue of jealousy from local men, who don’t like foreigners chatting up Latvian women.

On this topic, StagTakeCare comments on the Tripadvisor forum: “Introduce plane loads of stag parties of Brits with a load of money to blow in a weekend and you can understand why the local lads get a bit miffed about the Brits flashing their cash trying to take all their women from them.”

But tour operators that take stag groups to Riga in their thousands say their parties don’t have any problems.

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Phil Teubler, managing director of foreign stag party specialist The Dogs Baltics, whose most popular destination is Riga, told Times Online: “None of this happens to our groups because we have a guy in Riga who looks after them. The problems occur when you get young guys who go out on £10 Ryanair flights and get into trouble by running up bills of $2,000 in strip clubs.

“Frankly, they get what they deserve. I’d be surprised if any of the people complaining on these forums had travelled with a UK stag company.”

Will Johnson is the marketing and communications office for another stag operator, Last Night of Freedom. He told Times Online: “We had no problems with any sort of conning or fraud [when my managing director had his stag party in Riga], but unfortunately in the time since then this has crept into the city in a big way.”

“Riga is an outstanding location for a stag weekend if it is done properly and a disaster waiting to happen if it isn’t.”

He said his company also sends a guide with stag parties to keep them away from troublespots. But Johnson is critical of the Latvian authorities: “The Latvian government never holds back in showing it’s disapproval when a British stag group does create a problem… however they seem perfectly happy for their nightlife to be managed and run by people who can only be described as thugs.”

Both companies say that Riga is not just popular for its nightlife - it offers activities including bobsleighing, paintballing and shooting with Kalashnikov assault rifles.

Stewart says his party enjoyed paintballing and a night in a castle outside Riga, but said: “I had been considering Latvia for a fishing trip in the future but now that’s off. We enjoyed it but only because we went prepared – none of us would go back there.”

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