A teacher who posted a picture of Hitler on Facebook alongside the caption “you were right” has been fined, after he was reported to police by a Jewish student.

Mahmud Choudhury, from Tower Hamlets, pleaded guilty to the racially aggravated offence. He was fined £465 at Bromley Magistrates Court on Tuesday, but was told he would still be allowed to teach.

The 35-year-old was prosecuted after he shared a photograph of Hitler on Twitter last July, accompanied with the words: “Yes man, you were right. I could have killed all the Jews, but I left some of them to let you know why I was killing them.”

Mr Choudhury added his own caption: “Yes now we can see why… #ProtectiveEdge.”

His post was later seen by a former Jewish student of his at Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hatcham College in south-east London, who informed the police.

Mr Choudhury’s lawyer, Subhankar Banerjee, told the court that his client took full responsibility for his actions, and “was absolutely adamant he holds no antisemitic or other extremist views”.

But Jonathan Sacerdoti, of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, said the fine was an “inexplicably lenient sentence”.

He said: “Mahmud Choudhury cannot plead ignorance and has today been spared any meaningful punishment for spreading a hateful message which helps create the climate in which Jews are currently being killed across Europe.”