Dubai: A lawyer argued in court on Tuesday that it would have been impossible for his client to have left a lingerie store with a stolen bra put on her shoulder.

The Italian woman appeared before the Dubai Appeal Court where she pleaded not guilty and refuted the accusation of attempting to steal the bra worth Dh270 from the famous lingerie store.

In May, the Dubai Misdemeanours Court sentenced the Italian to three months in jail although she had pleaded innocent. She was also handed a deportation order.

Records said the store’s security guard reported to the police that the Italian woman had picked up the bra while shopping at the store in a mall, walked into a fitting room and when she walked out again, the bra had disappeared.

The guard testified that the bra was later found to be hidden in a bag that the woman was carrying.

Defending the woman before the appellate court’s presiding judge, Adnan Al Farra, lawyer Faisal Al Zarouni argued: “My client entered the lingerie store and did some shopping. She picked up the bra and tried it but she did not like it. She had picked other items and so she put the bra on her shoulder to return it to the shelves from where she had taken it. When she walked out of the store, she had forgotten the bra still on her shoulder … anyone could have noticed the bra on the shoulder. My client did not have any criminal intent and she was not trying to steal the bra. She simply forgot it on her shoulder and got out of the store … besides when she left, the alarm didn’t go off.”

Records said the woman entered the store around 10.50pm and she was seen in CCTV footage picking up the bra and then walking into the fitting room.

“The surveillance camera footage clearly showed my client leaving the store with the bra on her shoulder. She did not try to hide it or keep it away … this evidently proves that she did not have any intention to steal the bra. The CCTV footage of the other stores also showed that the bra was still on my client’s shoulder … Your Honour, it is quite obvious that my client had forgotten all about the bra and she did not want to steal it. If she had the intention to steal the bra, why would she put it on her shoulder noticeably and walk out of the store?” lawyer Al Zarouni said in courtroom 20.

The lawyer handed the court a copy of his client’s bank statement that showed a balance of nearly Dh30,000, questioning why she would try to steal a bra that costs only Dh270.

Presiding judge Al Farra will hand out a ruling next month.