Two foreign nationals providing courses for a well-known yoga school on Koh Phangan have been arrested for working without work permits.

Police visited a house on the tourist island on Friday, following up a complaint about a “Shaolin experience” course being promoted on Facebook.

When they arrived, they found some foreigners practising Chinese-style exercises at the house with a man identified later as Somphet, who held German nationality, teaching them.

Somphet Daoheuang, 37, was arrested, along with a Canadian woman identified as Arbely Natalie Rubalcava Rojo, 34, police said on Saturday.

Mr Somphet admitted being a trainer for the Shaolin experience course, which charged participants 9,000 baht each. It is one of a number of courses offered by Samma Karuna, which calls itself “an awakening and healing school” serving a mainly foreign clientele.

Mr Somphet told police that he received 60% of the training fee, or 5,400 baht per head, from Samma Karuna and the company received the rest.