BEIRUT: A man was charged Wednesday with impersonating a monk to pull off a number of con jobs.

A Beirut court asked that the man, identified by judicial sources as Hasan Ali Nasrallah, receive a three-year sentence if found guilty of misrepresentation and blackmail.

He was detained earlier this month after allegedly committing a string of cons at the same store in Ashrafieh, whose owner said he had entered three times and left with goods without paying, exploiting his supposed religious status and promising to pay afterward.

The indictment said Nasrallah, who would don the black robe of a monk, entered a fourth time and left with a photo of Saint Charbel, claiming that he would photograph it and return it later.

The indictment said the man had already been found guilty on the same charge and served a six-month jail term.