Pius Leitner, a councillor for South Tyrol’s secessionist party Die Freiheitlichen, did the crime and is now doing the time after he was found guilty of embezzlement after using public money to purchase three erotic gadgets.

Finance police uncovered a receipt for €64.92 used to buy the sex toys during a probe in January 2014. The investigation into all 15 political parties on the Bolzano provincial council got underway following allegations by a council member that funds were being misused.

At the time, party secretary Ulli Mair, who was acquitted on Friday in the same case, claimed that the toys had been bought as a joke gift for a colleague’s birthday.

Mair confirmed that an assistant had bought the products, including a “man’s ring that vibrates” and two stress balls in the shape of breasts. However, she said she had no idea how the receipt for the toys ended up among her expense claims.

She insisted that the gifts had been bought using party members’ own money, and said that she had received threatening and insulting emails following the case.