A woman who got drunk and stole a jacket from a casino has been let off with a conditional discharge after a court considered that she was a first-time offender.

Caroline Li, 36, was conditionally discharged for two years after she admitted to having stolen a man’s denim jacket, worth €200, from the Dragonara Casino in St Julian’s on December 8, 2013.

Ms Li, who was accompanied by her husband at the time of the theft, was cleared of stealing €1,000 that the jacket’s owner claims were in one of its pockets.

Ms Li told a court she got drunk that evening and spotted the denim jacket as she was walking out of the casino, grabbed it and took it home with her.

Police sergeant Terry James told the court that a Libyan man, Adel Al Tamimi, walked into the St Julian’s police station at 6.45am that day claiming his jacket had been stolen from the casino. He also told the police there was an envelope with money inside one of the pockets.

Upon inspecting the close circuit television footage, he could see Ms Li grabbing the jacket and walking out with it.

Mr Tamimi told the police that he was planning to pay the water and electricity bill with that money. However, he failed to explain why he had taken them with him to the casino.

Ms Li said she checked the jacket’s pockets to see whether the jacket had any items but she found nothing.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera said Mr Tamimi was not at all consistent in his testimony, first claiming he had €1,300 and then reducing the amount to €1,000.

Moreover, at first he did not know why he had taken the cash with him that evening and later said it was to pay a utility bill.

In handing down judgment, the court noted there was no evidence linking Ms Li to the theft as it had not been proven, beyond reasonable doubt, that the cash was really there. She also considered that Ms Li had a clean police conduct and was a first-time offender.

Police inspector Trevor Micallef prosecuted.