Thai police caught a bungling thief who said he was inspired by fictional criminal Lupin from the Netflix series.

Cops caught Sarawut Kokrum, 22, hiding in his home after he mugged a woman near an ATM machine in Buriram province, Thailand on August 6.

Officers took him for questioning at the Krasang Police Station on August 8, where he told officers he had the idea for the theft after binge-watching Lupin.

Sarawut said: ‘I wanted to experiment if it would work in real life. I was confused what to do at first but I just went with the flow and wore a hoodie with a black face mask and rode my motorcycle.'

The young lad told police he parked around 300 metres away from the ATM centre and waited.

He said: ‘Just like the series, I walked to the convenience store and approached my target with a knife. I put my weapon near the woman's waist and told her to pass over the bag. I ran back to the motorcycle and rode out of the area.'

The thief used the woman's ATM cards to withdraw 7,000 baht (162 GBP) and took the 19,000 baht (441 GBP) cash from her wallet.

He said he used some of the money to splash out on online games.

He said: ‘I bought a gaming chair for 3,000 baht (70 GBP) and topped up 5,000 baht (116 GBP) into my online games. I only had 18,000 baht (418 GBP) when the police showed up and arrested me. I never wanted money. I only tried because I wanted to see if the outcome would be just like the series.'

The woman Lahon Unaiban, 55, who went to withdraw cash to buy groceries that night, was unhurt and rushed to call the police after the thief had run away.

Police Colonel Witsanu Arphonpong said: ‘There are many surveillance cameras in the area and the young man did not know. Krasang District is one of the safety zone projects of the National Police.

‘There are CCTV cameras installed all over Krasang municipality and more than 200 cameras around the city. After receiving the report, it only took us three hours to identify the suspect and request an arrest warrant from the court. We did a house search and found all the evidence.'

Surawut, who enjoys watching thief movies and robbery games, was remanded in custody during investigations.

If found guilty, he could be jailed for up to 25 years and fined up to 30,000 baht (696 GBP).

Netflix series ‘Lupin' is about the life of Arsene Lupin, a French thief and ‘master of disguise'.