A Libyan man who ran off with a woman’s money and the iPad she was trying to buy from him has been fined despite the court being told he had no money.
At an earlier hearing at Perth Sheriff Court, Arkan Elherik admitted stealing £400 from his victim.
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis imposed a fine, despite Elherik’s solicitor telling him the 19-year-old student was entirely dependent on his father for funds.
John McLaughlin, defending, said: “He has no money at all. He intends to go back to Libya until September. He’ll be living on the funds of his father.”
Even so, Sheriff Foulis ordered Elherik to pay £300.
The court heard that Elherik met his victim at a hotel car park in Perth to discuss the sale of an iPad he had advertised on Gumtree.
Depute fiscal Robbie Brown said that when the woman examined the iPad in her car she found the accused still had personal information on it.
She asked him to delete the details but Elherik walked off with both the tablet and the cash.
He was caught when he bumped into a passerby and other people intervened before he was detained by the police.
Elherik, of Thurso Crescent, Dundee, admitted that on March 8, on Leonard Street, Perth, he stole £400.