North book dealer insists his story is not fake

Oct 26 2008 by Michael Kelly, Sunday Sun

BOOK dealer Raymond Scott has been on bail ever since cops quizzed him over the theft of a priceless first edition of Shakespeare’s works... and here he is with another copy!

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But before you think it is one of the Bard’s priceless manuscripts — just like the one at the centre of a police investigation — fear not.

It is just a facsimile, which Raymond brought along to Newcastle’s Theatre Royal last night where he was enjoying the RSC’s performance of The Merchant of Venice.

Raymond, 51, walked into Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC, USA, last July with a book experts claim may have been stolen from Durham University Library a decade ago.

He has always maintained his book — which was last week brought from the US to Durham University Library — is not the same first folio thieves stole, and that he took it to the library to be verified as genuine after coming across it in Cuba.

Three months after the police investigation was launched, Raymond invited us to take a snap of him with the folio copy, saying he’d relish the chance to clear his name. He said: “People will be saying, ‘my God, look, he’s got another one’, but this is just a facsimile copy I paid £150 for.”

Mr Scott was arrested during a raid at his home in Ayton Village, Washington, following a tip-off by the British Embassy in the US and he is due to answer bail next month.

But he says he has not heard from police since they raided the home he shares with his mother.

He said: “I’ve not heard a thing.

“I’ve completely co-operated with them and even given them details of my bank accounts — if they are sniffing around for money — which I didn’t have to do.

“Most of the books taken away by police belonged to my mother and they also took my passport, so I haven’t been able to see my fiancee Heidy Rios.

“If the book is returned to me I don’t want any money from it. I want to auction it off and for my share to go to a children’s charity in the Havana province.

“I personally welcome the book’s arrival at the university, so it can be examined by independent experts.”