Raymond Scott, who was jailed in 2010 for handling stolen book, found unconscious in Northumberland prison - Martin Wainwright - guardian.co.uk,
Shakespeare folio dealer Raymond Scott, 55, was cleared of stealing the 17th-century book from Durham University library. Photograph: Scott Heppell/AP
An eccentric antiques dealer who kept a rare, stolen First Folio of Shakespeare's plays in his home for a decade has been found dead in prison two years into an eight-year sentence.
Raymond Scott, 55, was found unconscious in his cell at Northumberland prison on Wednesday.
Scott ensured extra headlines for an already notorious crime, the theft of the 17th-century work from Durham University library, when he attended court dressed as Che Guevara, sprayed journalists with champagne and revelled in his ownership of a yellow Ferrari. He was cleared of stealing the book but found guilty of handling stolen property and taking it abroad.
He concocted a defence so exotic – involving the supposed discovery of the folio in Cuba through a friend of his fiancee, a nightclub dancer in Havana – that the judge put him down as a fantasist with a personality disorder.
But the jury heard after his conviction that he had been a capable and long-time criminal, with 23 convictions, three aliases and £90,000 of debt on credit cards.
Full story at The Guardian.
Raymond Scott, 55, was found unconscious in his cell at Northumberland prison on Wednesday.
Scott ensured extra headlines for an already notorious crime, the theft of the 17th-century work from Durham University library, when he attended court dressed as Che Guevara, sprayed journalists with champagne and revelled in his ownership of a yellow Ferrari. He was cleared of stealing the book but found guilty of handling stolen property and taking it abroad.
He concocted a defence so exotic – involving the supposed discovery of the folio in Cuba through a friend of his fiancee, a nightclub dancer in Havana – that the judge put him down as a fantasist with a personality disorder.
But the jury heard after his conviction that he had been a capable and long-time criminal, with 23 convictions, three aliases and £90,000 of debt on credit cards.
Full story at The Guardian.
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