A debt-ridden man hatched an extraordinary plot to make over £1m from a stolen First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, a court heard today.
Raymond Scott, who lived with his elderly mother in a County Durham cul-de-sac, created an "absurd" fake world involving an imaginary playboy lifestyle and a lost book hoard in Cuba, a jury at Newcastle crown court was told.
Calling unannounced at one of the world's leading centres of Shakespeare studies in Washington DC, the 53-year-old pressed reticent academics to back his claim that the 387-year-old treasure was previously unknown, kept in a box by the mother of a major in Fidel Castro's army.
Wearing an oversized T-shirt, lavish jewellery and shades, he donated £2,000 to the Folger Shakespeare Library, gave its startled director two bow ties and bought staff a large cake, said Robert Smith QC, prosecuting. But the pretence of wacky wealth concealed a complex criminal plot, launched when Scott allegedly forced locks at a sparsely attended exhibition in Durham to steal the book 10 years earlier.
"This is an item not just treasured by collectors but an essential part of our culture and heritage," said Smith. "It has frequently been called the most important book in the English language." Although more than 200 copies of First Folios are in libraries, 79 of them at the Folger, only eight are missing and a previously unknown one would be a salesroom sensation.
Scott, who sat in the dock beside a security officer, wearing silver trousers and a shirt patterned with lifeboats, peered about and intently followed Smith's opening address. He denies theft, handling the stolen, 445-leaf book and taking it out of the country.
Earlier this week, he arrived at Newcastle crown court for a legal argument hearing in a silver Chrysler limo, flanked by four burly minders. Today he took time to detail his Valentino sunglasses, Versace silver crocodile-skin shoes and rings, Cartier watch and Louis Vuitton bum-bag to bystanders before going into court.
The jury of seven women and five men were told that Scott's entire performance in Washington had seen lie piled upon lie, and that grandiose claims to have inherited a multimillion pound building firm contrasted with a bleak reality. Smith said: "The evidence will show that he was not wealthy by any means but receiving state benefits, living way beyond his means, with debts of over £90,000 from credit cards."
Instead of villas in Switzerland and Havana, Scott actually lived in a cul-de-sac in Washington – "Tyne and Wear, not DC," said Smith. He shared the house with his mother Hannah, then 80, and had made inroads into her money, keeping a Ferrari which he claimed was hers, although it was registered and insured in his name.
Scott turned up at the Folger in June 2008, 10 years after the Durham theft which stunned the north-east of England and scholarly circles worldwide. The stolen tome was one of a handful that had remained in single ownership, after its original binding in 1623 for John Cosin, who later became Bishop of Durham.
His attempt to deceive the Folger unravelled rapidly when suspicious staff brought in a former Christie's specialist, Stephen Massey, who promptly identified the folio in spite of crude attempts to remove telltale marks. Although the binding, frontispiece, title and concluding pages had been removed, the book's measurements were unique and previously recorded, and a handwritten note about Troilus and Cressida appears in no other First Folio.
Smith told the court that Scott had declared himself "shocked and surprised" at the Durham attribution in a series of exchanges with the Folger and Massey, which had earlier included offers of more donations and exuberant suggestions that D-Day – 6 June, when he allegedly first saw the book in Havana – should be renamed "Folio Friday". But his next move had been to try to persuade Massey to keep his views secret, and share the proceeds from a sale with Scott and two Cubans.
One of the many questions facing the court, which will be shown the Durham folio in strict security conditions tomorrow, will be whether this pair exists. Named as ex-Commandante Deni Mareno Leon and Heidi Garcia Rios – a hotel worker with whom Scott allegedly became infatuated – they have not been tracked down by prosecutors.
Judge Richard Lowden warned the jury to concentrate only on court proceedings and to ignore the worldwide publicity surrounding the case, particularly on the internet. He said: "Don't go there – underlined, don't go there. Some of the information might be accurate but a lot of it is not. Don't go to the internet."
The case continues.