Caroline Li, 36, today was handed a two-year suspended sentence after she admitted to having stolen a man’s jeans jacket worth €200 from Westin Dragonara Casino in St Julian’s.

Mrs Li, who was accompanied by her husband at the time of the theft, was acquitted of having stolen €1,300 which, according to the owner of the jacket, happened to be in one of the pockets of the jacket. The theft took place on 8 December 2013 at 4am.

Mrs Li told a court that she was drunk that night and on her way out of the casino spotted a jacket which was hanging on a chair. She grabbed the jacket and took it home.

She said that at one point she looked inside the pockets of the jacket to see whether the jacket had any items inside it but the pockets were empty, despite the claim that some €1,300 were inside it.

The report to the police had been lodged by a Libyan national – Adel Al Tamimi – who had alleged that his jacket contained around €1,300 in cash, some of which were winnings.

Police Sergeant Terry James told a court that he had gone to investigate further and asked the casino’s manager to show him CCTV footage. After close examination, it resulted that Mrs Li was seen leaving the premises with Mr Tamimi’s jacket.

Mrs Li claimed that she had gone through the jacket to see whether it contained any gambling tokens. She said all she found was a folder in the jacket. She pulled it out and so that it contained nothing and left it on a gambling machine. CCTV footage confirmed what she said. Footage also confirmed that nobody was in the room where the jacket was, as had been stated by Mrs Li.

The court ruled that the victim was not consistent in his testimony since he initially told police he had €1,300 in the jacket but then told a court that he had some €1,000.

It also ruled that the accused has a clean police conduct and therefore should be treated as a first-time offender.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera presided over the case while Police Inspector Trevor Micallef prosecuted.