A Briton on Tuesday pleaded guilty to stealing tickets for a crunch World Twenty20 cricket match between hosts Sri Lanka and defending champions England. Police said Caesar Buller, 54, had gone to a sales booth in the capital Colombo on Sunday and pocketed four books of tickets for Monday's game, which Sri Lanka won, eliminating England from the tournament.
He was arrested after sales staff raised the alarm. Colombo Chief Magistrate Rashmi Singappuli ordered Buller, from Manchester, to appear for sentencing on October 16 and remanded him on bail of one million rupees ($7,700). Under Sri Lankan law theft carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a fine. Police told the court Tuesday that the stolen tickets had a face value of 10,920 rupees (around $85), but most of them could not have been used as they had not yet been validated.
It was the first case of ticket theft for the Twenty20 tournament which opened on September 18 and continues until October 7. Last month, police raided a factory turning out counterfeit International Cricket Council World Twenty20 T-shirts and seized stocks of fake merchandise after the ICC complained about trademark infringements.
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