Three-month suspended prison sentence for £40,000 theft at Monte-Carlo Casino
© Monaco Tribune
A gambling addict, she came to try to recoup her losses and to pick up some clients.
Some £40,000 were stolen at the Casino de Monte-Carlo on 4 May. The British plaintiff had come to spend the evening at the legendary Monegasque landmark to have a flutter and a drink with her partner.
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It was 2am when they decide to go home, but she left her bag hanging on a chair in the bar. It was only when she woke up the next morning that she realised her bag, valued at £20,000, was missing, along with its contents, valued at the same sum. It contained her wallet, passport, sunglasses, airpods and several items of luxury jewellery, including four gold earrings and a Chanel brooch.
While the bag and passport were still at the casino, the rest of her belongings had disappeared. Fortunately, the culprit was identified thanks to CCTV and arrested a few days later when she returned to the casino.
A woman with a gambling addiction, abandoned by the man who supported her
During her police interview, the fifty-year-old thief explained that she was “addicted to gambling and had lost everything.” Until recently, she lived with an elderly Monegasque resident whom she met a few years ago when she was a sex worker.
She claims she was forced to go back to prostitution when he left her. When she goes to the casino, it’s not just to try and recoup her losses with the “hundred euros” she wagers, but also to find clients.
Well known to the casino employees, one of these “acquaintances” went to the defendant’s home in Menton under police supervision to get back some of the stolen items and return them to the victim. Some of the goods were not recovered, but the deputy public prosecutor is not sure what was really in the bag, as the victim was unable to provide evidence of its contents.
However, the accused did not sell them on. “None of the items belonging to the plaintiff were sold, only items given to her in her previous relationship,” said the deputy public prosecutor. “What was in her home has been given back.”
Previous convictions
The defendant has never been convicted in Monaco, unlike in France, where her record includes one conviction for theft and cheque fraud, and another for drink-driving.
The deputy public prosecutor initially acknowledged that the fifty-year-old had committed the theft “opportunistically, having spotted the bag left behind by the plaintiff,” but “that she helped herself to what was in the bag with disconcerting ease.”
The thief was given a three-month suspended prison sentence and banned from Monaco for one year.