A theft victim got his sweet revenge when he recovered his stolen phone and exposed his assailant as a love cheat after finding his conversations with multiple women.

Portuguese tourist Leandro Rodrigues, 20, had gone on holiday to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with a friend.

He was snapping a sand sculpture on Copacabana Beach on 6th December when a crook rode by on a bicycle and snatched his mobile phone from his hand.

Leandro immediately found some police officers on patrol and told them he had been robbed.

The officers tracked the phone’s location and were led to the notorious Pavao-Pavaozinho slum.

They reportedly began pursuing the phone thief, but he managed to flee and dump the stolen device in an area of the Leblon neighbourhood.

And Leandro had the last laugh when he recovered the phone and saw that the crook had incriminated himself while logging into Facebook from the device.

From his messages, he was able to see that he had promised to give the stolen phone to his girlfriend and that he had also planned further thefts.

In a video uploaded to social media, Leandro chuckled: “Out of nowhere, we dismantled a network of robberies in Pavao.”

Police were also able to see from the messages the crook had sent that he had been cheating on his partner with other women.

Leandro filmed an officer as he called the girlfriend to tell her: “Your b*stard boyfriend is a thief and wanted to give you the mobile phone as a gift, but you’re not going to get it anymore.”

The cop told her he would forward her the incriminating messages showing how he had been cheating on her.

Police are reportedly investigating the case but, at the time of reporting, had not made any arrests.

After his phone had been recovered and police required nothing more from him and his friend, Leandro joked: “We were saddened to be removed from the case.”

He said they now plan to return home earlier than planned out of fear that the crook or his potential cronies will chase them down.

But despite his bad experience, he refused to rule out returning to Rio in the future, saying: “Who knows in 10, 15 years from now.”