HONG KONG -- A Chinese soldier stationed in Hong Kong has been fined for stealing a Mickey Mouse key ring from Hong Kong Disneyland, a court document showed.

Tsuen Wan Magistrates' Court charged Zhang Qinggang, 27, with theft and ordered him to pay HK$1,000 ($129) for pocketing the HK$35 ($4.50) key ring from a shop at the theme park in January, the document issued Friday showed.

Zhang, a Hong Kong-based member of the People's Liberation Army, was shopping at the theme park with his wife when a security guard spotted him slipping the key ring into a carrier bag, the Ming Pao Daily reported Saturday.

The soldier pleaded guilty to the charge, the paper said.

The theft was an individual case and the Chinese army has always abided by the law since stationing in the city eight years ago, the paper quoted a PLA Hong Kong garrison spokesman as saying.

PLA soldiers were deployed to Hong Kong in 1997 after the former British colony was returned to China.