A security guard accused of stealing snacks worth one-thousand-50 won, or about 70 cents, was acquitted after an appeals court found him not guilty of theft.

The Jeonju District Court's verdict, which arrived on Thursday, overturned a lower court's 50-thousand won fine.

The trial focused on whether the 41-year-old defendant unlawfully stole and ate an individually packaged 400-won chocolate-covered snack and a 650-won custard cake from the office refrigerator of a logistics company in the Wanju region of North Jeolla Province last year.

In the first trial, the court found the defendant guilty and imposed a fine. He appealed, arguing that a conviction could cost him his job as a security guard.

The acquittal caps nearly two years of legal stigma and will allow the worker to retain his job.