A hotel worker who stole a colleague’s scooter has appeared before the Monaco Criminal Court charged with the theft.

The thief was apprehended after the scooter’s owner alerted the police in Monaco after he finished work at 01:00 and found his machine missing from its parking place on ave. de Grande Bretagne, French-language daily Monaco Matin reports.

Once again, video cameras came to the aid of investigators who were able to identify the thief and, by examining phone records, traced the culprit to a neighbourhood of Nice. The defendant concocted a complex story about having been offered a scooter for sale for 1,000 euros, and having paid for it, finding it stolen early the next day.

Despite a plea from the defence lawyer that a conviction would blemish the 23 year-old’s clean criminal record, the culprit was sentenced to eight days in jail, suspended.