A worker at the Huis ter Duin hotel in Noordwijk has stolen hundreds of thousands of euros in jewellery from guests, the Telegraaf says on Wednesday.

The thief, the personal assistant of the hotel’s owner, was often given jewellery to look after by guests and friends of his boss. However, the man, named by the Telegraaf as Marcel J, 42, took the items to Antwerp where he had the gems replaced by fakes, sources told the paper. He then sold the real precious stones and pocketed the money.

‘Marcel was a big spender… he often used to rent a suite in the ultra-luxury Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai,’ one source said.

J was caught out when he tried to sell a necklace to a jeweller’s shop in Amsterdam where the owner recognised the item as one he had sold years previously.

Huis ter Duin is a smart hotel in the seaside resort which is used by the Dutch football team. US president Barack Obama stayed there while he was attending the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague in 2014.