Accused quoted oil tycoon during police questioning (From Durham Times)
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Accused quoted oil tycoon during police questioning
9:20am Wednesday 30th June 2010 in News
ARMY COSTUME: Raymond Scott during a previous court appearance
A MAN accused of stealing a priceless first folio of Shakespeare’s plays quoted an oil billionaire when questioned by detectives about his finances.
Raymond Scott, 53, paraphrased a quotation by industrialist Jean Paul Getty while under arrest on suspicion of the theft of the rare 1623 manuscript from Bishop Cosin Library at Durham University.
He told Detective Constable Tim Lerner: “If you owe your bank £9, then you have a bit of a problem. If you owe your bank £90,000, then your bank has the problem.”
When asked to explain what he meant, he said: “I have no assets.”
Speaking about finances, Getty said: “If you owe the bank $100, that’s your problem.
If you owe the bank $100m, that’s the bank’s problem.”
A jury at Newcastle Crown Court heard Mr Scott had built up £90,000 worth of debt buying designer clothes, expensive cigars, champagne and a Ferrari.
Det Con Lerner told Mr Scott during the interview: “You are buying these on credit cards obtained fraudulently, not just in your name but in your mother’s and father’s.
“That is pretty serious financial trouble.”
The court was told that Mr Scott posed as a wealthy businessman staying at luxurious hotels when trying to verify the authenticity of the manuscript at the Folger Shakespeare Library, in Washington, in the US.
In reality, he was claiming benefits and living with his mother, Hannah, at her former council house in Washington, Wearside.
The manuscript has been described as one of the most important works of English literature. Experts said it had been mutilated by having pages and the cover removed to disguise it.
Mr Scott, who says he was given the manuscript in the Caribbean, denies theft, handling and transporting goods.
During interview, Mr Scott, of Wingate, County Durham, said: “There is no way if I had any knowledge that this was the Durham folio or a stolen copy that I would walk into the Folger Library, show the book to the head librarian and then leave all my bank details, my own name and address and show them my British passport.
“To suggest I would do that; it is tantamount to walking into the Louvre in Paris with the Mona Lisa under my arm, ten years after it had been stolen.”
The trial continues.
