A courier stole a £2,000 guitar signed by the Red Hot Chili Peppers he was meant to deliver for an auction for Prince Charles’s charity.

Peter Brown, 35, was tasked with dropping off the Fender Squier Stratocaster to the Prince’s Trust offices in central London.

He had only been working for courier firm Destinations Green for six weeks when he swiped the instrument, which was in a Perspex case.

CCTV caught Brown pulling up outside the charity’s offices near Liverpool Street station, getting out and signing his handheld computer before driving away.

When confronted, he claimed he had given the package to a man smoking around the corner who claimed to know the person the package was addressed to.

But at Highbury Corner magistrates’ court on Wednesday he was found guilty of theft after a two-hour trial.

Jasmine Turner of Timebased Events, which organised the charity auction, said the guitar from the US rock group was “signed by several band members” and “in a clear Perspex case.”

The theft was discovered the next day and the courier firm sent a scan of a signature which suggested the parcel had been signed for and delivered.

Brown, of Fulham, denied one charge of theft in January last year. He claimed he had not been signing his device but had been checking on the job details, then moved his van as it was on double- yellow line.

A “black man” who was chasing up the delivery called and they met around the corner, Brown asserted.

But Deputy District Judge Samantha Mace said she found his evidence “lacking in consistency and credibility ... I am quite satisfied there was no black male. I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that you took the guitar and I find you guilty.”

Brown, who said he was sacked from the courier firm and now works as a bus driver, was ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work and pay £2,000 compensation plus a £115 government surcharge.