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Cape Town - An Algerian World Cup tourist who tried to steal an Algerian soccer team jersey from an exclusive V&A Waterfront clothing store was on Tuesday fined R2 000 or sentenced to four months in jail, suspended for five years.

Ahmed Benzania, 22, who appeared in a dedicated Soccer World Cup court in Cape Town, told magistrate Jahstree Steyn that he had been sent to Cape Town by the Algerian government to watch his country play.

But his attorney, Tazlin Colbee, told the court he missed the match because he was arrested on Friday and held in custody.

Benzania said he had gone to the store with friends, one of whom had placed the jersey in question in a transparent bag that Benzania was carrying.

Benzania had left the store with the bag, but had waited for his friends at the entrance.

He had assumed that his friend would pay for the jersey, he said.

Shopping different in Algieria

Benzania said shopping was different in Algeria, and that it was not unusual in Algeria for a shopper to place an article in a bag, leave the store and return later to pay for the item.

But Steyn said shoplifting was so rife in Cape Town that there was a special court to deal with it.

He dismissed Benzania's explanation.

"If you buy something, you buy something, and the way you buy it is the same all over."

He said the most surprising aspect of Benzania's story was his claim that someone else had placed the jersey in his bag, and not himself.

Colbee told the court that Benzania's friends had since left Cape Town - with his belongings and money.

She added: "Sadly, he did not even see the game that he came to watch, and he now also has to answer to his government for this offence."